3 ms·
You can do quite a bit with timing on the launch vehicle. A delay of ~45 minutes in SSO is the opposite side of the planet. And do any of the Planet CubeSats e
by planteen 9y ago
You can do quite a bit with timing on the launch vehicle. A delay of ~45 minutes in SSO is the opposite side of the planet.
And do any of the Planet CubeSats even have propulsion? It looks like the Flock constellation deployed without it.
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/flock-1.htm http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/flock-1.htm
- THE_PUN_STOPS 9y agoMechanical Engineer working with CubeSats here. No CubeSat launched to date has carried a propulsion system. (Aside from air drag brakes to deorbit, I think someone launched at least one of those)
- planteen 9y agoThat's interesting none have launched with propulsion yet. I remember talk about the VACCO system when I was doing CubeSats a few years ago but it doesn't look like they are on-orbit yet.
- azernik 9y agoThat delay leaves you halfway around the planet, in the same orbit. Unless you give the satellite a good chunk of a kilometer/second of delta-v, you're not going to have any different of an inclination, and waiting half an orbit doesn't save you any propellant on apogee raising/lowering maneuvers for either permanent change of orbit or for phasing purposes.