Freesat is shrinking...or dying

[rodscha]

anyway,easy to find listings online!

 

[Pride Of Cucamonga]

Seeing as 28.2 is quite underutilised, could SES move everything to 2 satellites and allow one to drift into inclined orbit to save fuel? (with a view to brining it back in service for a kind of bare bones freesat offering when the fuel on the others runs out)

 

[hvdh]

Seeing as 28.2 is quite underutilised, could SES move everything to 2 satellites and allow one to drift into inclined orbit to save fuel? (with a view to brining it back in service for a kind of bare bones freesat offering when the fuel on the others runs out)

I don't recall ever nothing an inclined sat brought back to GEO, probably not much fuel is saved, in the end.

 

[Analoguesat]

I don't recall ever nothing an inclined sat brought back to GEO, probably not much fuel is saved, in the end.

The nearest I can think of is Intel907 but that required MEV1 to give it a helping tow around.

 

[Pride Of Cucamonga]

I was imagining that the inclined orbit was a cycle and at some point the satellite would naturally return to geostationary, but it actually continually drifts away and would need to expend fuel to return to geostationary? Is that right? Sorry for being so ignorant on this!

 

[Channel Hopper]

I was imagining that the inclined orbit was a cycle and at some point the satellite would naturally return to geostationary, but it actually continually drifts away and would need to expend fuel to return to geostationary? Is that right? Sorry for being so ignorant on this!

It requires some impetus to regain the original orbit.

Perhaps another wayward satellite , or alien intervention.

 

[hvdh]

I was imagining that the inclined orbit was a cycle and at some point the satellite would naturally return to geostationary, but it actually continually drifts away and would need to expend fuel to return to geostationary? Is that right? Sorry for being so ignorant on this!

Actually your first thought is correct, but it requires patience: 53 years! From Wiki:

"A combination of lunar gravity, solar gravity, and the flattening of the Earth at its poles causes a precession motion of the orbital plane of any geostationary object, with an orbital period of about 53 years and an initial inclination gradient of about 0.85° per year, achieving a maximal inclination of 15° after 26.5 years."

 

[Pride Of Cucamonga]

Actually your first thought is correct, but it requires patience: 53 years! From Wiki:

"A combination of lunar gravity, solar gravity, and the flattening of the Earth at its poles causes a precession motion of the orbital plane of any geostationary object, with an orbital period of about 53 years and an initial inclination gradient of about 0.85° per year, achieving a maximal inclination of 15° after 26.5 years."

Damn, that's my astrophysics career over