Questions tagged [artificial-satellite]

Questions about objects in orbit which are human made, such as communications and GPS satellites, orbital observatories and space stations, and other man-made object in permanent or semi-permanent orbits around the Earth, other celestial objects, aside from the Sun, or even other satellites. Not to be confused with non-orbited man-made objects in space, that are usually referred to as "probes", or simply "spacecraft".

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What network does the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite use to communicate with Earth while staying in its orbit?

From a NASA fun facts website How do satellites communicate?: How do satellites communicate? Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. The antennas ...
Arunabh Bhattacharya's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
48 views

How to access satellite & debris data categorised by intended purpose?

I'm working on an art project which requires satellite data (active, inactive, as well as debris), so I was on Space Track. Does the NORAD ID or some other field help retrieve information about the ...
sub511's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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how to procure a Launch vehicle for injecting a cubesat into LEO at LOW COST?

Me and my team are working on sending Cubesats just beyond the Karmann line. For which we obviously need a launch vehicle and would like to procure one or if possible build one. If any aerospace ...
Souvik Banerjee's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
4k views

Do all artificial satellites have engines?

Novice question. A few days ago I watched a TV documentary about Virgin Orbit’s failed mission earlier this year to send satellites into orbit from Spaceport Cornwall. One of the satellites shown ...
Peter4075's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
302 views

If the largest spy satellites could take pictures, how detailed would they be?

This question is inspired by the NRO's Orion Satellites. These are surveillance satellites placed near geostationary altitude that measure radio emissions. Importantly, they have been described as the ...
A McKelvy's user avatar
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3 votes
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86 views

Difference Result of Numerical Satellite Propagator

Currently, I am trying to build a numerical propagator platform for satellite that accommodates for all kinds of perturbation. So, for validation purpose, I compare the result of my own program and ...
yusuf147's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
286 views

How are starlink satellites deployed?

I'm not a science guy, but I did some research and I gathered that the rocket's upper stage spins before releasing the satellites stack in such a way that each satellite is given a slightly different ...
David's user avatar
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0 answers
83 views

Sattelite position from TLE

How to get satellite position from TLE without any libraries? Because in Processing there is no libraries like SGP4.
Stanislav's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
168 views

Predicting the ground path of a satellite's shadow

Given the orbital parameters of a satellite, how can I predict the ground path of its shadow? (The path from where it will appear to transit the Sun).
LostXOR's user avatar
  • 31
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is the full GPS constellation a Walker Delta constellation?

Through the extremely rigorous method of looking at the animation on Wikipedia's article about GPS, if this does indeed accurately represent GPS satellite orbits, then it looks like not all of the ...
NeutronStar's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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Maximum and minimum surface temperatures of a satellite in GEO?

Just as the title, how could one find out, or simply estimate the maximum and minimum likely surface temperatures of a satellite orbiting in GEO.
parry's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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How do engineers measure satellite drag, and how do they track it over time?

I’ve been slowly getting myself familiar with astrodynamics and understanding satellite orbits. I’m familiarizing myself with the concept of drag experienced by the satellites. I am curious about how ...
AGS's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
172 views

Given historical TLE’s, how do I determine the path/orbit/LLA of a satellite for a given historical period?

Im trying to get the historical Lon/Lat/Alt of a starlink satellite. I'm using TLE's from space-track and Skyfield to calculate latitude, longitude and altitude of satellites for a given date range. ...
AGS's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
123 views

How can I get a list of GNSS satellites in view for a given date/time

I need to generate a list of which satellites were in view at a given date/time. I'm specifically interested in the Galileo constellation of GNSS satellites, and I'd like to get a list of when each ...
Tim Long's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
157 views

How do I calculate the maximum northern and southern latitude a LEO satellite can image?

How do I calculate the maximum northern and southern latitude a LEO satellite can image? What parameters would I need?
pottie's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
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What are the safe structural elements of spacecraft that could be used for on-orbit capture?

I know this depends on the general configuration of a spacecraft, but I am hoping to gain some insights. Assuming you have a servicer spacecraft with an abstracted capture mechanism (i.e., end ...
Ibrahima's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
223 views

How much does it cost to build terrestrial ground station capable of controlling satellites orbiting the moon?

I'm noobie in space exploration and I want to carry out market research to find out how much it costs to build a terrestrial groundstation to control satellite missions that are in lunar orbit. Two ...
Ganimedes's user avatar
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0 answers
80 views

Does space have the same salvage laws as maritime law? [duplicate]

With the international space station being decommissioned within the decade and other abandoned satellites what are the rules on independently saving these objects?
Joe's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
59 views

How to select the right magnetic torquers to desaturate a wheel?

I want to select actuators for a micro-satellite (around 40 kg) orbiting in LEO. I proceeded in calculating the maximum disturbance torques that affect my spacecraft and selecting proper reaction ...
martina p's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
178 views

Why are some satellite solar arrays arranged in a zig-zag pattern

Some of the solar panel arrays I've seen on satellites are arranged in this weird zig-zag pattern. Even when they're fully deployed they still have this arrangement. Why? What's the benefit from doing ...
NuclearTaco's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Data on satellites and/or space junk

I am hoping to develop a program capable of predicting when a satellite will fly through the path of a telescope observation. The aim is to make it possible to block or mitigate the light from the ...
Pioneer_11's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
4k views

What causes a satellite's orbit to decay?

Why do orbits of satellites orbiting at sufficient speed, far beyond the Earth's atmosphere, decay if there is no atmospheric drag? What drag is applied on the satellites at that altitude?
Niranjan's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
146 views

What is the purpose of geosynchronous communications satellites?

This question's sole answer Is it true, that commercial communications satellites account for the largest share of commercially used satellites? explains that: the vast majority of the satellites in ...
Ahmed Tawfik's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
166 views

Distance between a satellite and an orbit

I would like to compute the distance between a satellite and a specified orbit. For instance, for an orbit at 897 km altitude, 0 degree eccentricity, 99 degree inclination, and RAAN of 0 degrees on ...
Troy Rockwood's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
207 views

Does a space elevator ruin most satellite orbits?

A space elevator would offer a direct connection between the surface of the Earth and geosynchronous orbits. While the concept has several severe problems, according to my understanding of orbital ...
TheDyingOfLight's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
46 views

Local space radiation measurement by 1U CubeSat

As far as I know, the general influx of ionizing radiation received by a CubeSat in LEO is mostly trapped protons and electrons, solar protons, galactic cosmic radiation, and neutrons. If the CubeSat ...
Golden_Hawk's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
48 views

How can I calculate GPS satellite's Latitude and Longitude if I have the elevation, the azimuth, the XYZ coordinates of the ground station

How can I calculate a GPS satellite's latitude and longitude if the elevation, the azimuth, and the XYZ coordinates of the ground GPS station are provided? I have tried these questions: Computing GEO ...
TThoye's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
101 views

How can I calculate GPS satellite's Latitude and Longitude if I have the elevation and the azimuth

Please tell me how I can calculate a GPS satellite's latitude and longitude if I have the elevation and the azimuth angles. I am using a septentrio GPS receiver. Thanks
TThoye's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
180 views

Are satellites and probes dried before they start?

In vacuum, any liquid water on moisture in the materials of a satellite and probe will start to gas out. So are the materials on satellites and probes baked or dried by other menas before beeing sent ...
TrySCE2AUX's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
246 views

Using 2023 technology, how low can a satellite orbit earth?

With the technology available today, 01-01-2023, what is the lowest altitude at which we can orbit a satellite around earth?
Niranjan's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
157 views

What is the longest working cubesat?

For example VZLUSAT-1 is 5 years old and it is still working.
Saturn V's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
140 views

How would one obtain the longitude of satellite at the apogee?

I know that apogee longitude is a design point in Molniya orbits. Given the classical orbital elements, how can I find this value?
EserRose's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
154 views

Use ECI cordinates to plot orbit in three.js

I am using satellite.js to get ECI coordinates from TLE data. Now my first question is can ECI coordinates be used to plot satellite orbit as shown here. If yes then how can i do that in three.js? ...
Sourav Anand's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
82 views

How do I make a attitude trajectory of a satellite so the attitude always points towards a point on earth given its current orbital position?

Let us say there is an antenna on earth and I have a satellite in an orbit how do I make the trajectory (not control, so body velocities of the satellite) to make it point toward the earth when it is ...
Hamzalihi's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
269 views

Why didn't early satellites have a way to recharge?

Sputnik 1 only worked for 21 days until its battery ran dry, explorer 1 ran for 111 days. It wasn't until Vanguard 1 that we started putting solar panels and recharge methods on satellites. It was ...
Deko Revinio's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
78 views

What is the origin of the ring of debris in inclined GSO orbits? [duplicate]

Both these illustrations of space debris show a ring shaped cloud of debris at GSO altitude, but with an inclination of about 15*. What is the source of these objects? The graveyard orbit for GSO ...
Woody's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
67 views

Eutelsat 13G and Spacebus NEO's all-electric propulsion

Today, Eutelsat's Hotbird-13G was launched by a Falcon 9 to a "geosynchronous transfer orbit". Deployment was at an altitude of roughly 1100 km. The satellite must reach a geosynchronous ...
Peter - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
170 views

What could spacecraft do with much more available power? Are spacecraft power limited?

I'm curious about how spacecraft would benefit having much more power for the same total mass. Solar panels are getting lighter, but would the extra power they could generate bring benefits to space ...
James Craft's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
129 views

The Earth's rotation does change by small amounts; what is done to keep geostationary satellites aligned with ground stations? [duplicate]

Are satellites moved to keep them aligned? Are they at risk of becoming unusable from the small, but measurable changes to Earth's rotation?
Ken Fabian's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
558 views

Questions about Orbital Propagation

I am a beginner in the field of aerospace. Recently, I wanted to use the extended Kalman filter to improve the orbit. My idea is to use TLE data as observations values, the ...
inner heart's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
147 views

Satellite position using 2 station ranging

Two Station Ranging Given the position of 2 stations and the distance between both and the satellite (in km, say) and the fact that the orbit is geostationary and positioned at 45.1(degrees) west, ...
pncln's user avatar
  • 31
-4 votes
1 answer
95 views

How many collisions are possible to eradicate all already existing satellites? [closed]

If earth lost all contact with satellites, how many collisions would it take to be left with 0 satellites orbiting in their normal path? Deep-space objects are not considered like James Web Telescope.
Osm's user avatar
  • 121
0 votes
1 answer
60 views

Rotation of an elongated geostationary satellite

I read somewhere that if you place an elongated geostationary satellite tangential to the Earth it will rotate so that its long axis is in line with the radius. Presumably, as soon as one end goes ...
user36093's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
42 views

Is there any dataset that are monitoring the grounding electronic charges provided by the satellites?

I would like to know if there are some datasets that are monitoring the grounding electronic charges provided by the satellites
dragontim's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
4k views

How do we ensure an orbit of a satellite doesn’t interfere with existing ones?

How do we ensure a new orbit/route of a LEO satellite or even a swarm of LEO satellites doesn’t collide with currently existing ones when planning a mission? I’ve thought about running a simulation ...
Andy Tso's user avatar
  • 369
3 votes
1 answer
98 views

Python - Beyond Orbit raises TleParseError for valid TLE [closed]

I've been using the example script for ground track from the beyond library documentation. I've been using TLEs from Celestrak's set of NOAA satellite TLEs, located here. This was working fine until I ...
confused_about_beyond's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
218 views

Creating a classroom tool for satellite location

I would like to create a sun-dial type project for seventh graders which they can use to locate their favorite geostationary satellite. These are the kids who will probably hear about satellites for ...
Omar Shehab's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
613 views

Would satellites going into a rendez-vous show a difference in potential leading to an arc between the structures?

I'm researching into satellite rendez-vous. I know (NASA-HDBK-4006A) that in space (more precisely LEO) there is a plasma made up with electrons and atomic ions and a 'plasma potential'. I also learnt ...
Joan's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
63 views

Visualizing halo orbits

I'd like to visualize JWST's orbit (or any halo orbit that resembles it) preferably in Python. Does anyone have any code or resource I could read? Thanks in advance!
Alvaro's user avatar
  • 21
3 votes
1 answer
218 views

How do satellite operators negotiate when a collision avoidance measure is necessary?

In another question I asked How often do active satellites have to change course to avoid other active satellites?. The idea behind the question was to understand which party is actively avoiding ...
Adrian's user avatar
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