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A geo-stationary satellite can stay in orbit for billions of years. I’m surprised this was not mentioned in the article at all.
by sovande 7y ago
A geo-stationary satellite can stay in orbit for billions of years. I’m surprised this was not mentioned in the article at all.
- aaron695 7y agoWiki says no. We can't/see no need to keep them in place short term. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit A perfectly stable geostationary orbit is an ideal that can only be approximated. In practice the satellite drifts out of this orbit because of perturbations such as the solar wind, radiation pressure, variations in the Earth's gravitational field, and the gravitational effect of the Moon and Sun, and thrusters are used to maintain the orbit in a process known as station-keeping.