3 ms·
Wouldn't such a system still require storage? Their nights might be a little shorter by virtue of being in GEO, but they'd still spend a chunk of each day in Ea
by marcusverus 6y ago
Wouldn't such a system still require storage? Their nights might be a little shorter by virtue of being in GEO, but they'd still spend a chunk of each day in Earth's shadow.
- DennisP 6y agoLess than you think, because of the planet's axial tilt. You put your satellite in orbit over a fixed spot on the equator: > satellites in geostationary orbit will spend some time in the shadow during what we call “eclipse seasons.” Each eclipse season lasts 44 days, during which the time that a satellite spends in eclipse (shadow) builds gradually from about a minute or two at the start of the season, to a maximum of 72 minutes at each equinox. It then gradually retreats over the next 22 days, at which point the solar arrays are again in the sunlight on a 24×7 basis. https://corpblog.viasat.com/how-satellites-are-affected-by-the-spring-and-autumn-equinoxes/ https://corpblog.viasat.com/how-satellites-are-affected-by-t... So you do have a little bit of downtime, but so do coal, gas, and nuclear plants. The few hours of shadow per year still leaves a capacity factor of over 99%.