Gravity Check: Thousands of Satellites Orbit Earth

Quick–just how many satellites, operational or not, are orbiting Earth? Pretend you’re trying to impress your fellow engineers. Even better, pretend you’re trying to impress people in a bar (although that strategy might backfire). Have you guessed? Do you really want to know if you’re correct or are you satisfied with impressing the folks in the […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 7–Curves and Angles

Geosynchronous (GEO) satellites are wonderful. They can see a lot of the Earth from 22,236 miles in space. It’s why they make great observation and communications satellites. Previous chapters explained some of the problems facing GEO satellites, too, such as solar influence and eclipses. But now’s the time for a few lesser known problems GEO satellites […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 6–Eclipse

All that you touch, all that you see… Yep, you guessed it! We’re going to talk about another issue common to geostationary (GEO) satellites: the eclipse. This issue is almost opposite from the problem discussed in Part 5 of the GEO lesson series. Instead of being overpowered by the sun’s energy, the satellite can’t function […]

The Earth’s “Love Handles”

Womencitizen is focusing on the Earth’s “Love Handles” with this 2 February post. University analysts are finding the odd shape of the Earth is keeping satellites in orbit longer than if it were a perfect sphere. If you’ll remember, the Earth isn’t shaped like a perfect sphere, but more like a squashed Halloween pumpkin. Such […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 5.5–Indian GEO Flight Plan

Just a short blurb for you about a really great blog post from Planetary.org. It’s definitely related to The Mad Spaceball’s GEO lesson series on this site. I think it’s better written. I wanted to provide, at the very least, the link for this post, titled “How to get a satellite to geostationary orbit”. As you […]