1. How does NASA communicate with a spacecraft?
Information taken from

2. Just in the same way as you listen to the radio in the car.
NASA use radio waves to transmit information and communicate with spacecraft.
Radio waves are part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum and so can travel through a vacuum. Perfect if you want to get messages through space.
A spacecraft will have an transmitter and a receiver in order to create and receive information.
On earth, NASA have massive radio receiver dishes as the signal strength is quite weak when it gets to earth.
The transmitters and receivers must be precisely aimed so that both can ‘hear’ each other.

3. Answer these questions in your books in full sentences
Answer these questions in your books in full sentences. (you will have to research the answers!)
What is the frequency and wavelength range for radio waves?
How are radio waves made in a transmitter?
What happens in a receiver to receive radio waves and convert them to sound?
Describe and briefly explain AM (Amplitude modulation) and FM (Frequency modulation) and how they are used to transmit information using radio waves.
How do radio waves use the ionosphere to transmit information around the world.
Find out about Guligelmo Marconi – When was the first transatlantic radio communication achieved? Where was it sent from and to, and what information was sent?

4. Useful websites
/vss/docs/communications/3-how-do-you- make-a-radio-wave.html
/science/aqa_pre_2011/radiation/the_elec tromagnetic_spectrumrev6.shtml
history/marconi-sends-first-atlantic- wireless-transmission
niradioexperiments.html