# Why put SunRISE in the graveyard? Why will it "fly slightly above geosynchronous orbit"?

The blots.nasa.gov article NASA’s SunRISE Mission Studying Solar Particle Storms Moves Toward Launch says that the upcoming

SunRISE mission — short for the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment — passed a mission review on Sept. 8, 2021, moving the mission into its next phase.

Later it goes on to say:

Consisting of six miniature solar-powered spacecraft known as CubeSats, the SunRISE constellation will operate together as one large telescope — forming the first space-based imaging low radio frequency interferometer — to create 3D maps pinpointing how giant bursts of energetic particles originate from the Sun and evolve as they expand outward into space. The mission will also map, for the first time, how the Sun’s magnetic field extends into interplanetary space — a key factor that drives where and how storms move throughout the solar system. Data from SunRISE will be collected and transmitted to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network. The six CubeSats will span roughly six miles across and fly slightly above geosynchronous orbit at 22,000 miles from Earth’s surface.

Question: Why put SunRISE in the graveyard? Why will the SunRISE mission "fly slightly above geosynchronous orbit"?

1. Why anywhere near geosynchronous at all?
2. Why "slightly above" rather than at? Why not slightly below?

SunRISE measures radio bursts from solar events and transmits the data to NASA’s Deep Space Network. Credit: NASA (single frame from the GIF)

• Just a guess - because there are a lot of opportunities for a rideshare launch. Big satellite is launched to geostationary orbit, and then the cubesats need just a little orbit ajustment. Low orbit is not convenient for this mission, it should fly above Earth's ionosphere. And further trajectories (Lagrange points, or heliocentric orbits) can't provide enough downlink bandwidth because of higher distance. I have no links to prove this, however. Sep 20 at 12:10
• Upd: yes, it's planned as rideshare with commercial satellite by Maxar launched to GEO. jpl.nasa.gov/missions/sun-radio-interferometer-space-experiment Sep 20 at 12:14

Why will the SunRISE mission "fly slightly above geosynchronous orbit"?

There are few advantages and practical reasons for doing so. The first advantage is trying to minimize Earth-based radio noise from contaminating the signal without having to send the spacecraft to some far away place like L1. If you are slightly above geosynchronous orbit, you can reduce a lot of the radio noise between spacecraft and ground (not all but a lot).

The mission launch requirements state that the

...SunRISE Observatory shall achieve a mean orbit equivalent in science return to the nominal 37,027 km altitude circular orbit with an eccentricity of $$0^{\circ}$$ and and inclination of $$0^{\circ}$$... As this orbit is above Earth's ionosphere and plasmasphere, it ensures that SunRISE can observe over the required frequency range (0.26 MHz < $$\nu$$ < 11.3 MHz...) and obtain the required observatory availability... This orbit is easily accessible on rideshares with telecommunication satellites. The notional orbit is known as a supersynchronous orbit and is where GEO spacecraft are maneuvered to be decommissioned, hence the common phrase "GEO graveyard."

Heopps is also correct that the current contract for the ride share is with Maxar/SSL.

The exact location of any given SunRISE CubeSat need not be well known, but the relative distance between each of the six CubeSats will be known to an extremely precise value using GNSS.