Comment by ctde
1 month ago
google: orbit
it does not see the sun half of the time
polar orbits don't come to the rescue, they are quite busy already
1 month ago
google: orbit
it does not see the sun half of the time
polar orbits don't come to the rescue, they are quite busy already
Sun-synchronous orbit gets sunlight ~100% of the time.
From TFA:
> In low Earth orbit, satellites can access near-constant sunlight, generating up to eight times more solar power than on Earth.
That's obviously a reference to sun-synchronous orbit. You don't get 8 times more solar power in a low inclination orbit.
i already countered that argument, but to spell it out: sun synchronous orbits which see the sun all the time are a 1d manifold (approximately) and quite busy already, so they won't come to the rescue.
My point is that SSO isn't "coming to the rescue", it's literally the entire premise of the idea (greater availability of solar power there vs anywhere on earth). I don't buy "there's no more room" as an argument when we're talking about space, even in a relatively crowded set of orbits like SSO.