3 ms·

You probably maintain orientation with a control moment gyro and periodically desaturate it with thrust. You also use thrust to reboost and stay in orbital slo

• dabluecaboose 4y ago
  This is exactly how the NOAA GOES sats work. Every day at a proscribed time we used to desaturate the reaction wheels, so they could more or less keep running constantly and keep the satellite pointing where it should be.
  • mlyle 4y ago
    Yup. This would be big enough that a control moment gyro would be "worth it," too-- and could store a whole lot of momentum and allow less frequent desaturation burns.
• giantrobot 4y ago
  You'd need a rigid structure to keep the gyro from ripping itself loose from the structure. Even constructed as a giant space frame, that's a lot of mass to deal with the torsion of the structure rotating. A structure 100m on a side would be just at the bounds of current technology (the ISS's control moment gyros). With 30% efficient panels that's only about 4MW before conversion and path losses. The high impulse ion engines to desaturate the gyros would still need to be refueled regularly. I think you're hand waving a lot of complexity that even if completely solved still leaves a solution that's orders of magnitude costlier than solar panels on the ground.
  • mlyle 4y ago
    I am not saying SBSP is easy. I am saying eclipse is a small amount of the problem compared to other geostationary craft.