Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 23/98) - Satellites providing service to the North were left untouched by a meteor shower last Tuesday which had threatened to damage or knock out satellites in its path.

Debris left behind by the Temple Tuttle comet that recently passed close to the Earth, became a raging storm in the upper portion of the Earth's atmosphere as it orbited into the meteor field Nov. 17.

The storm peaked between 2 and 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday, but Telsat's two satellites that provide NorthwesTel with telephone and cable service were left intact.

"Everything went fine," said Stewart MacMillan, public relations for Telsat.

"The satellites didn't suffer any hits. They are monitored (by computer) and we can see if they have taken any hits or any static discharge."

Forty-four out of 94 communities receiving telephone service from NorthwesTel use the Telsat satellite Anik E1 to receive transmission.

NorthwesTel Cable receives signals through Telsat's Anik E2 satellite and uses the Anik E1 primarily for backup and computer data.

In the worst case scenario, if both the Anik E1 and E2 were to experience problems, the receiver dish in communities across the North would have to be manually re-positioned to receive signals through an American satellite until the problems with the Telsat satellites were resolved.

The procedure involved in repositioning a receiver dish is quite labour-intensive and time consuming just to reposition it a few feet.

Telephone communications would be the first priority for co-ordinating migration to another satellite.

Although the meteor shower was not expected to be very heavy around the area where the two Telsat satellites were orbitting, Telsat took the precaution to reposition the satellite's solar panels. By facing the panels into the storm, it was planned that the edge of the panels would detract much of the storms impact off of the main body of the satellite.

The meteor shower not only posed a threat of the satellites being damaged by the force of the meteor particles, but the possibility of the particles forming an electrically charged film on the satellites that would cause it to short out.