Levitating Satellites into Odd Orbits Can Make More Room in Space

Polar geostationary? That sounds interesting... off to google!

I know there is some crowding up there, but in all honesty, is there much to worry about? The amount of space at that distance from the planet is immense, and it will clear out as old satellites slowly fall in decaying orbits (perhaps with a little assistance from astronauts, who knows) and they will burn up harmlessly in our atmosphere, making room for more new satellites.

Is this really so much of a concern?

I can believe there is a potentially geosynchronous 'neutral area' of some sort that a correct amount of mass at correct velocity and vector can be joined to, increasing the known area of effect of geostationary orbits. I'm having a hard time wondering is what is so difficult to believe about it.

@Greatusername:
The reason that geostationary space is at such a premium is that geostationary satellites must always be directly above the equator and each one needs to be separated from its neighbors by at least one full degree of arc as viewed from earth's center. Any closer than that and the signals can overlap. That means that only 360 operational geostationary satellites can used reliably at any one time, and having dead (uncontrollable) satellites nearby can be very hazardous.

@quasi44:
The mass of any man made satellite will always be such that the geostationary orbit (approx. 22,236 miles from earth's center) cannot be changed. To have a higher or lower orbit while maintaining synchronization with the earth's rate of rotation would require that the mass of the new satellite be many orders of magnitude greater or less than those currently used. In other words millions (if not billions) of times more massive (for a slightly higher orbit) or millions (billions) of times less massive (for a lower orbit).

Crowded? How can 2000 objects spread in 3 dimensional space over a sphere that is bigger than the earth itself be considered crowded? If we said 'there are nearly 2000 satellites spread around the earths surface' would we consider that crowded? and in 3 dimensional space it is even less so.

@joeii63 - great comments! thanks for the info.
i guess the signal overlap problem means that if signals could be more finely distinguished, the satellites could be placed closer together. i imagine that's being worked on.

Sounds like it's an issue of signal resolution more than just overcrowding. They need to work on getting the satellites closer.

Those are going to have to be some pretty sophisticated sails to account for the differences in the output of the sun and the amount of solar rays reflected based on the amount of cloud cover, etc. here on earth. Signal resolution and filters sound like a better solution.

I would think a solar sail would run into trouble when the seasons change, since the north pole points toward the sun in summer and away from it in winter (northern hemisphere winter that is). So would the satellite not wander from +30 miles to -30 miles as the earth progresses in its orbit? If it crosses the regular geosynch orbit twice a year, how does that relieve the overcrowding problem?

"The amount of space at that distance from the planet is immense, and it will clear out as old satellites slowly fall in decaying orbits."

There's no atmospheric drag at 36 000 km. The only source of orbital decay is tidal forces. If it's slightly above geostationary the orbit will tend to ever so slowly increase in period and altitude over hundreds of millions of year(like the moon), if it's lower it will tend to decrease in period and altitude over millions of years until it eventually meets significant atmospheric friction and the orbit rapidly decays.

Most geostationary satellites are boosted from geostationary orbit into a slightly higher orbit for disposal(high enough to not interfere with existing geostationary satellites, but the debris will still be there, somewhere about geostationary orbit, when the sun goes kaboom).

"Crowded? How can 2000 objects spread in 3 dimensional space over a sphere that is bigger than the earth itself be considered crowded?"

3-dimensional is two dimensions too many.

The surface of a sphere is a 2-dimensional space. If a satellite is above or below this spherical shell its period is too high or too low and it's not geostationary.

An unpowered(keplerian) satellite must be precisely along the equator or it will change latitude in a sinusoidal fashion over each period. The only unpowered geostationary satellites exist on a ring around the Earth, a 1-dimensional object.