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Because it takes a lot of fuel to go from GEO to an orbit that would touch the atmosphere. It is not like a low orbit where a small perturbation will easily bri

by Iv 7y ago

Because it takes a lot of fuel to go from GEO to an orbit that would touch the atmosphere. It is not like a low orbit where a small perturbation will easily bring the satellite close enough to the atmosphere so that it brakes naturally. According to this graph [1], you need about a third of the delta-v budget it took to get to GEO in order to get back into LEO. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delta-Vs_for_inner_Solar_System.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delta-Vs_for_inner_Solar_...

tectonic 7y ago
True, although it's not in a GEO orbit.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
That chart is for circular orbits AFAIK; you need less than half of that to lower one apsis to touch the atmosphere, and the air will do rest of the work. Still probably not worth it.