2

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 satellites is usually described as coplanar with GSO but higher altitude.

enter image description here https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa/deorbit-systems

enter image description here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323245224_Orbital_Diversity_for_Global_Navigation_Satellite_Systems

Woody
  • 21,532
  • 56
  • 146
  • 1
    Do you have a reference somewhere that indicates those are debris? The first image just links to the graphic with no context and in the second image the legend doesn't mention debris. – GrapefruitIsAwesome Nov 06 '22 at 16:28
  • @GrapefruitIsAwesome ... sorry. Try now – Woody Nov 06 '22 at 17:12
  • potentially relevant Wikipedia page – Topcode Nov 06 '22 at 17:13
  • 1
    To answer the question, satellites in geostationary orbits have to fight multiple perturbing influences, east-west perturbations primarily caused by tesseral harmonic terms in the Earth's gravity field, and north-south perturbations primarily caused by the Sun and Moon. (Note: The Sun contributes both gravitational and radiation pressure perturbations.) However, I agree that this question is a duplicate. – David Hammen Nov 06 '22 at 19:38

0 Answers0