A comsat is loose in GEO. This was one of the things that Orbital Recovery was supposed to address. I’m not sure what the status is on the company, but perhaps Dennis can comment.
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A comsat is loose in GEO. This was one of the things that Orbital Recovery was supposed to address. I’m not sure what the status is on the company, but perhaps Dennis can comment.
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In other words, decaying orbit — yes?
Very darned interesting. One of the most interesting things that I have read is that there are 165 satellites floating around in that gravitational anomaly.
Orbital Recovery, which was succeeded by Orbital Recovery Limited, which was succeeded by Orbital Satellite Services AB, which was succeeded by…….. (name not revealed yet)
The issue with this system has never been technical viability, it has been finding people willing to risk capital to capture a new and amazingly profitable market. Another factor has been the complete lack of interest by the existing incumbents to consider a market that does not have the government paying many times what it is worth to address.
I know how we can get around this seemingly chicken/egg quandary, but it takes some people with capital and little round things between their legs to do it.
In other words, decaying orbit — yes?
No. There’s no such thing as a decaying orbit in GEO; there’s no drag out there. It’s just moving a little faster than a GEOsat is supposed to, so it’s drifting east. This also means that its eccentricity will probably change, and it will be crossing orbital paths with the whole ring, but I imagine that the relative velocities are so low that it’s not that big a deal.
Rand
Actually the problem is that eccentricity only builds up over time. The best thing to happen is to allow it to drift into one of the two gravitationaly anomalies that are mentioned in the article.
I doubt, but could be convinced, that blasting it with RF will shut it down.
I’m impressed with how long they think the satellite will hold Earth pointing attitude…July or August!
I’m with Dennis in that I’ve never worked with a satellite where a blast of RF would shut it down. One of the problems I’ve dealt with in the past is that satellites (older ones, at least) aren’t designed for graceful shut down. Some have returned ‘from the dead’ to transmit much to the surprise of the agency that thought they’d shut the spacecraft down.
How hard would it be to re-purpose a space shuttle to remain in space permanently? It seems we already have a space plane that could zip around picking up disabled satellites.
If refueling is one of the major issues, wouldn’t this be a good test for fuel depots?
How hard would it be to re-purpose a space shuttle to remain in space permanently? It seems we already have a space plane that could zip around picking up disabled satellites.
If refueling is one of the major issues, wouldn’t this be a good test for fuel depots?
It would be very expensive to do so. It would be more cost effective to build a new vehicle from scratch for that mission. Explaining why would take a long essay, though.
Wodun, a relatively short answer to your question: have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v_budget#Earth.E2.80.93Moon_space for the velocity changes involved. To go from Low Earth Orbit at the latitude of Kennedy Space Center to equatorial Geosynchronous Orbit is over 2 kilometers per second (one way!). The Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System has only about 300 meters per second of delta-V capability.
Stupid question… when I first read that article this morning, the part that really stuck out to me was the concept of libration points in GEO.
Are they really, technically, libration points? What causes them to exist (e.g., something like bulges in the Earth’s surface and/or core)? How strong are they, compared to, say, EML-1? How long will an object last in them (or is that somewhat meaningless because of the lifespan of geosynchronous orbits to begin with)? Is there any potential economic or scientific benefit that can be gained from them?
Hmm, that is a bummer. Thanks for the answers.
Hopefully the X 37B will lead to something that can service satellites in LEO. If I’m reading the responses correctly, you would need a similar but altogether different vehicle that could do the same thing in GEO.
There could be a potential market for this in the future if there was an international don’t litter policy to deal with space debris.
Those libration points at which several dead satellites have collected sound like good spots for a spacecraft to hide, supposing it had a way to get there undetected.
PeterH,
Shhhhhhhhh!
Big D-
They exist because of the Earth’s non-spherical shape. Craft that are uncontrolled will move back and forth through the point. For instance, with one point at 105 degrees west (I forget where the other one is…haven’t worked with GEO birds away from the US in a while…), a craft which goes uncontrolled at 100 degrees will drift through 105 to 110, then turn around and come back.
If deliberately moved to 105, the spacecraft would stay there, with all the other dead ones whipping by every now and then.