3 ms·
It’s a great analogy but to nitpick a little I wouldn’t say the circumference is expanded ‘a lot’ - they’re generally in LEO at 5-600km so an additional 1000 km
by robbiep 3y ago
It’s a great analogy but to nitpick a little I wouldn’t say the circumference is expanded ‘a lot’ - they’re generally in LEO at 5-600km so an additional 1000 km which is essentially 3,141.5 ish kilometres on top of 40,000ish - under 8%?
Of course, each additional orbital plane is basically another set of roads but for all the internet sat constellations being planned extra distance = lag, hence we’re going to see the most growth in that LEO category
- placesalt 3y agoI looked it up, and LEO = <2000km altitude, and rEarth = ~6300m, so surface area of a sphere with r=6300km => ~500,000,000 km^2 surface area of a sphere with r=8300km => ~860,000,000 km^2 so roughly 1.5x the surface area at max LEO compared to earth's surface (feel free to correct me if my arithmetic is off :)
- Cogito 3y agoUnfortunately it's the wrong comparison to make. Two cars sitting still in a car park won't collide with each other, but there's no way to sit still in orbit. Any two circular orbits at the same altitude will intersect at two points. You have to be very careful to make sure objects in such orbits will not collide with each other. It's far easier to make the orbits slightly different sizes or shapes, so that they don't intersect at all. In any case, the need to be in an orbit to stay in orbit severely restricts your free choices for where to put your objects, so there is not as much free space as you might expect.
- robbiep 3y agono problems with that, but the internet sats all seem to be aiming for 500-600 (Starlink) up to 1000km. it's lots of 'space' :)