3 ms·
In orbit 1/4 the distance to the moon? Wow! I didn't realize we put satellites into orbit at that height.
by ssewell 13y ago
In orbit 1/4 the distance to the moon? Wow! I didn't realize we put satellites into orbit at that height.
- peeters 13y agoWe put lots of them up there! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit
- kindredlight 13y agoGeosynchronous is nowhere near 1/4 distance to the moon. This sat is temporarily going to a highly eccentric transfer orbit on its way to GEO.
- ssewell 13y agoYep. Keyword is "transfer" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_transfer_orbit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_transfer_orbit
- mnw21cam 13y agoLooks like a bi-elliptic transfer to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-elliptic_transfer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-elliptic_transfer
- peeters 13y agoYou're right of course, although I would argue that the difference between 1/11 the distance to the moon (geostationary orbit) and 1/4 the distance to the moon are not off by an order of magnitude, compared to LEO or other lower orbits.
- deletes 13y agohttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/404067161175379968 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/404067161175379968
- InclinedPlane 13y agoWe don't, at least not usually. The mission design is for the satellite to go up to 80,000 km where it will do an orbital plane change then settle back down into a geostationary orbit. It actually uses less energy to do it that way than to just do an apogee raise up to GEO then a plane change.