• Telemetry is an automated communications process where data is collected and then transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring, display, and recording
• In the case of satellites, the data from the satellite is about its operations (eg. temperature of batteries) or about its mission (eg. scientific data being collected)
• Ground control "commands" transmitted to the satellite could control a process, switch transmitters on/off, reschedule some equipment function, or adjust the satellite's altitude
• A transducer converts the physical stimulus to be measured (eg. vibration, temperature) into an electrical signal
• The signal is then transmitted to the ground by radio waves
• Once the ground station receives the transmission, the data must be extracted from the received signal and displayed in a form which can later be processed by computers
• This entire process as a whole makes up telemetry