3 ms·
The thrusters are to offset atmospheric drag, which accumulates with surface area, not mass.
by kortilla 2y ago
The thrusters are to offset atmospheric drag, which accumulates with surface area, not mass.
- justin66 2y agoWeird half-true comment. Imaging satellites change their orbits, satellites operating in constellations station-keep, etc.
- kortilla 2y agoStation keeping is for drag, which is the only thing the vast majority of satellites maneuver for.
- justin66 2y agoThere are some oddities here. The least interesting is that drag is not the only reason satellites station keep and I can't imagine why you'd say it is. The weirdest is that we're actually having an argument about whether satellite mass continues to matter once the satellite is in orbit. More interestingly, the majority (perhaps not yet "vast majority" [0]) of active satellites right now are Starlink satellites. Those things actually maneuver all the time in the interest of collision avoidance, and the rate at which they maneuver is predicted to increases as the number of satellites increase for obvious reasons. [1] [0] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/who-owns-the-most-satellites/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/who-owns-the-most-satellite... [1] https://www.space.com/starlink-satellite-conjunction-increase-threatens-space-sustainability https://www.space.com/starlink-satellite-conjunction-increas...
- roywiggins 2y agoMore mass still means you get less velocity out of your fuel, even if the drag stays constant.
- ordu 2y agoBut you also lose less velocity with the same drag.