5 ms·
I have often wondered if a a very small Ion thruster, used intermittently, gravitationally stabilised, could be used to offset the variable atmospheric drag cau
by aurizon 1y ago
I have often wondered if a a very small Ion thruster, used intermittently, gravitationally stabilised, could be used to offset the variable atmospheric drag caused by inflation/deflation of the tenuous upper atmosphere to extend satellite life. It would add a little weight at launch but could extend orbital life by many years. It would need fractions of a gram of thrust, run off the current solar electricity budget, and could easily make them endure for 10+ years. When the satellite had failed or aged out, it could be used for improved de-orbiting at end of life.
I also suspect that a mobile stream at a lower frequency could be added that would provide intermittent stream down loads of news directly to the Russian people via recently tested cell phone comms ability
- vardump 1y ago> I have often wondered if a a very small Ion thruster, used intermittently, gravitationally stabilised, could be used to offset the variable atmospheric drag caused by inflation/deflation of the tenuous upper atmosphere to extend satellite life. Isn't that exactly what Starlink is doing?
- brcmthrowaway 1y agostarlink sats have thrusters?
- MarkusQ 1y agoYes. https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/11cnh0w/starlink_20_mini_with_new_argon_hall_thurster/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/11cnh0w/starl...
- aurizon 1y agoYes, I see, dated 2018 using rarified air as ion source. Totally solves the reaction mass needs and the electricity is solar
- literalAardvark 1y agoAll sats have thrusters. Station-keeping must be active for very many reasons, and sats with broken thrusters fall down fairly quickly.
- mlindner 1y agoNot all sats in general have thrusters. There's many types of satellites, especially smaller ones, that use magnetorquers, and somtimes reaction wheels as well, to maintain orientation but have no propulsion. There's also satellites with no active attitude control at all and use passive means to maintain a somewhat static orientation. That can permanent magnets causing a tumbling linked to Earth's magnetic field, passive aerodynamic stabilization, or using Earth's gravity gradient to align the satellite.
- literalAardvark 1y agoMy bad. I meant all of these useful, long lived sats. I knew "all" would bite me in the ass, but it's a reasonable generalisation. Sats without active control last what... Weeks in LEO?
- numpad0 1y agoESA GOCE and JAXA SLATS did that. SLATS went as low as 167km(104mi). Neither was air breathing.