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Topic: Graveyard orbit

	The Orbital Debris Problem
		There are currently over eight thousand satellites and other large objects in orbit around the Earth, and there are countless smaller pieces of debris generated by spacecraft explosions and by collisions between satellites.
		Currently, there is no law requiring that old satellites be removed from orbit, but NASA has recently implemented a guideline for NASA satellites, and it is likely that this guideline, or one like it, will become a law.
		Some organizations are currently planning on boosting their satellites to higher, "graveyard" orbits at the end of their missions.
	www.tethers.com /OrbitalDebris.html (638 words)

	Graveyard orbit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		A graveyard orbit, also called a supersynchronous orbit, is an orbit significantly above synchronous orbit where spacecraft are intentionally placed at the end of their operational life.
		For satellites in a geostationary orbit and geosynchronous orbits, the graveyard orbit would be few hundred kilometers above the operational orbit.
		The transfer to graveyard orbit above geostationary orbit however requires the same amount of fuel that a satellite needs for approximately three months of stationkeeping.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Graveyard_orbit (351 words)

	[No title]
		A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit which has an orbital period close to that of the earths rotation.
		A geostationary orbit is a special case of the geosynchronous orbit where inclination = 0 and the period is equal to the rotation period of the earth (approx 1436 minutes), corresponding to a circular orbit of approx.
		In the case of the Centaur launcher, used on the Titan and the Atlas boosters for geosynchronous orbit missions, a collision avoidance manoeuvre is conducted so that the Centaur stage is boosted into a graveyard orbit above the geostationary arc.
	lycos.cs.cmu.edu /info/geosynchronous-orbit.html (311 words)

	Graveyard orbit biography .ms (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		A graveyard orbit is an orbit where spacecraft are intentionally placed at the end of their operational life.
		For satellites in a geostationary orbit the graveyard orbit would be few hundred kilometers above the operational orbit.
		The transfer to graveyard orbit above geostationary orbit however requires the same amount of fuel that a satellite needs for approximately 3 months of stationkeeping.
	www.biography.ms /Graveyard_orbit.html (253 words)

	Aussat
		Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 160 deg E in 1985-1993 Last known longitude (5 September 2001) 174.28 deg W drifting at 1.831 deg W per day.
		(orbit given is geocentric 42164 km, which corresponds to altitude 35787 km).
		Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 164 deg E in 1987-1993; 156 deg E in 1993-1995; 152 deg E in 1995-1999 Last known longitude (4 September 2001) 163.96 deg E drifting at 0.005 deg W per day.
	www.astronautix.com /project/aussat.htm (343 words)

	SeeSat-L Jun-01 : Re: Graveyard Orbit (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		Option 2 is typically used for spacecraft in orbits with altitude less than about 2000 km.
		At the end of life, perigee of the orbit is lowered to a point where (based on the mass and area characteristics of the satellite and some curves supplied by NASA) it is assumed the satellite orbit will decay and the satellite reenter within 25 years.
		Option 3 is generally used for orbits higher than 2000 km.
	www.satobs.org /seesat/Jun-2001/0056.html (493 words)

	LiftPort Group Discussion Boards - Orbital Debris Law Question (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		A parking orbit is a place for no longer functioning satellites to be so they are out of the way the useful ones.
		In order for a parking orbit to move the satellite beyond the SE it will need to be farther out then the end of the SE which is likely to be 100,000 km or about 60,000 km beyond GEO.
		The Space Elevator (SE) may be able to dodge most of the debris in the GEO graveyard orbits by building the entire SE approximately 180 nautical miles off the equator.
	www.liftport.com /forums/showthread.php?p=5488 (2218 words)

	Space debris (Henry Spencer; Phil Karn)
		And one should beware of SDI systems that leave orbiting debris behind them; for example, many missiles that are fired from sealed tubes simply punch out through the seal, and this might leave small amounts of seal debris in orbit.
		This is barely enough to stay in orbit (it corresponds to a perigee of 240 km, given by Ariane to AMSAT Oscar-13).
		But if you put the graveyard orbit high enough (300km above GEO is the current consensus minimum, but the issue is still being studied), and make sure to empty tanks and discharge batteries, the chances of this are small.
	yarchive.net /space/space_debris.html (2357 words)

	FuturePundit: Tethers As Orbital Space Debris Cleaners
		When electrical current flows through a through a tether connected to a spacecraft, the force exerted on the tether by the magnetic field raises or lowers the orbit of the satellite, depending on the direction the current is flowing.
		His plan is to equip the tether with a roving sheepdog, a small vehicle that is released near a piece of debris to fly around it looking for a suitable point to latch onto.
		The tether is necessary because parking old satellites in "graveyard" orbits eventually results in the generation of smaller and more dangerous pieces of space debris as micrometeorites collide with the satellites.
	www.futurepundit.com /archives/000885.html (1189 words)

	Technology Transfer Program - SBIR Success Stories
		There are over eight thousand satellites and other large objects in orbit around the Earth, and there are countless smaller pieces of debris generated by spacecraft explosions and by collisions between satellites.
		In order to prevent old satellites, spent rockets, and the orbital debris that they generate from making low-Earth orbit unusable, satellite users must begin to provide a means of removing their old satellites and spent rockets from orbit.
		As a result, the orbit of the satellite decays, and this decay can be very rapid.
	techtran.msfc.nasa.gov /SBIR/tether.html (1020 words)

	SPACE.com -- The Terminator Tether Aims to Clean Up Low Earth Orbit
		Satellites or other objects in orbit higher than 700 kilometers will stay there for hundreds of years; LEO satellites have an average working life of just five years.
		Studies have shown that low Earth orbit is not a limitless resource and should be managed more carefully.
		Also, graveyard orbits merely leave satellites up higher, where micrometeorite damage slowly causes these objects to break apart; smaller fragments will filter back down, leaving this problem for our children to solve.
	www.space.com /businesstechnology/technology/technovel_tether_041117.html (751 words)

	SeeSat-L Jun-01 : RE: Graveyard Orbit (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		Generally, the only orbit that is controlled because location is key is the geostationary orbit at about 22,300 miles above the equator.
		A "graveyard orbit" for geostationary orbit would be about 150 miles higher.
		The graveyard orbit doesn't permanently remove an old satellite from the geostationary belt; it just makes it somebody else's problem many generations from now.
	www.satobs.org /seesat/Jun-2001/0050.html (354 words)

	Space crimes and misdemeanors - space - 23 April 2005 - New Scientist Space
		Satellites in geostationary orbit revolve above the equator in the same direction and with the same period as the rotation of the Earth and so appear stationary relative to the ground.
		The fuel required to raise a satellite to the graveyard orbit could keep the satellite going for an extra three months of revenue-earning operation.
		Of the total 1036 objects in the geostationary environment whose orbits were analysed, Jehn's team found 140 abandoned satellites that were librating in the ring.
	space.newscientist.com /article.ns?id=mg18624964.300 (1329 words)

	The Experimental Servicing Satellite - ESS
		These include the acquisition, inspection and servicing of an orbiting satellite through to parking it in a "graveyard" orbit.
		This spacecraft flies in the super-geostationary orbit and, due to its drift, is continuously visible for 30 days from GSOC.
		ESS will be launched into a geostationary transfer orbit from which it will be raised into a full geostationary orbit and will then drift towards its target, maintaining a three-axis-stabilised attitude.
	esapub.esrin.esa.it /pff/pffv7n2/settv7n2.htm (1071 words)

	ESA Portal - Press Releases - European telecommunication satellite ECS-5 decommissioned after 12 years service
		ESA, who was responsible for its procurement and subsequent in-orbit control, has initiated re-orbiting, end-of-life testing and decommissioning activities through its dedicated control centre at the ESA ground station in Redu (Belgium).
		The spacecraft is expected to be decommissioned and placed in its "graveyard" orbit of at least 150 km above geostationary altitude by the end of May 2000, thus ensuring that no debris remains in this valuable orbit.
		The remaining spacecraft, ECS-4, is continuing in operation after 12 and a half years in orbit and is expected to remain in use for time being.
	www.esa.int /esaCP/Pr_35_2000_p_EN.html (328 words)

	Untitled Document
		The studies of interactions of satellite constellations with the space debris environment have concluded that, without debris mitigation measures, the debris environment cannot sustain the long-term operation of large constellations but could sustain the long-term operation of medium-sized constellations of up to 100 satellites at high collision risk.
		Or, larger constellations of up to 350 satellites could be deployed in lower collision risk orbits as long as strict mitigation measures are implemented, such as explosion prevention and immediate satellite deorbiting upon end-of-life and failure.
		The results of recent studies have indicated that satellites left in a higher graveyard orbit will slowly break apart as micrometeorites hit them, and the smaller fragments will filter back down to lower altitudes.
	nctn.hq.nasa.gov /innovation/Innovation_83/SBIR-RomovingSpace.html (1245 words)

	SeeSat-L Jun-01 : Re: Graveyard Orbit (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		It is a higher than > geostationary orbit but the difference in semimajor axis (ie.
		See for example: I've been puzzled by this question for a while, and was hoping someone would address it in this thread.
		I assume there's a good reason for chosing a higher orbit - anyone lnow what it is? Thanks.
	www.satobs.org /seesat/Jun-2001/0055.html (265 words)

	ESA Portal - Ion propulsion system to the rescue
		Due to a malfunction in the upper stage of the Ariane 5 launcher, ESA’s newest satellite was put into a degraded orbit that for conventional telecommunication spacecraft would be considered a graveyard orbit as they are unable to reach geostationary orbit in case of such launch failure.
		Originally designed to ‘station-keep’ once the satellite is in the correct orbit, the two systems have turned out to be vital in a series of recovery manoeuvres intended to propel Artemis into geostationary orbit some 36,000 km above the Earth.
		These new modes are required because the ion propulsion systems will be used differently to their original purpose, which is to maximise the lifetime of Artemis.
	www.esa.int /export/esaCP/ESANO40VMOC_index_0.html (1007 words)

	[No title]
		At the ends of the tether, this current would be transmitted to the thin space plasma present in low-Earth orbit, says Robert Hoyt, of the Seattle company (206-306-0400).
		They circle the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, which means they orbit the equatorial plane of the Earth at a speed matching the Earth's rotation.
		The satellites themselves have a 14-year lifecycle, after which they are launched into a graveyard orbit in space.
	www.lycos.com /info/satellites--orbits.html?page=2 (427 words)

	TV Uplink
		This is called a geosynchronous orbit, meaning the satellite moves at the same speed at the Earth's rotation, making it appear in the same place all the time.
		That orbit is about 88 times higher than the space shuttle typically goes, and it requires a rocket with lots of fuel.
		Once a satellite is in orbit, it has enough fuel to remain for around 10-12 years.
	www.tvuplink.net /sngnf.html (1067 words)

	Recent examples
		The satellite was at the end of its life and its state of health was unpredictable, with the risk that mission managers might lose control of it completely.
		Spot 1 was on an elliptical 800-km orbit (570 km at perigee and 800 km at apogee).
		From its 800-km orbit, Spot 1 was therefore brought down into an elliptical orbit of about 570 km at perigee and 800 km at apogee, where it would break up in less than 25 years.
	www.cnes.fr /web/print-5005-recent-examples.php (371 words)

	US-A
		The spacecraft bus provided 3 axis stabilisation and the nuclear reactor was put in a safe graveyard orbit after completion of the mission.
		In the event of failure to place the reactor in the graveyard orbit, a backup system ejected the reactor core and dispersed the fuel during re-entry, spreading the radioactive material in the upper atmosphere so that a safe radiation exposure standard was reached.
		Theoretical research in the optimum orbit for the system was undertaken at the Academy of Sciences under Keldysh.
	www.astronautix.com /craft/usa.htm (2864 words)

	SeeSat-L Jun-01 : Re: Graveyard Orbit (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		In reply to: Jonathan T Wojack: "Graveyard Orbit"
		It is a higher than geostationary orbit but the difference in semimajor axis (ie.
		mean motion M) depends on the amount of propellants avaliable for final orbit adjustments.
	www.satobs.org /seesat/Jun-2001/0051.html (234 words)

	Orbit (disambiguation) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Orbit (anatomy), the socket in the skull which accommodates an eye
		Orbit, an optimizing compiler for the T dialect of the Scheme programming language
		Orbit (the anthology series), a series of original science fiction anthologies
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Orbit_(disambiguation) (149 words)

	space news from Aug 30, 1993 AW&ST
		At 1721 PDT on the 21st, MO's transmitters were turned off, so that the filaments of their travelling-wave tubes would be cold (and hence relatively strong) when pyrotechnic valves were fired five minutes later to repressurize MO's tanks for the orbit-insertion burns.
		The bipropellant system would be closed down permanently on arrival in the final orbit, because the fully- deployed position of the high-gain antenna is in front of the big rocket nozzles.
		The Mars 1994 orbiter's own orbit is not as well-suited for surface data relay as the one MO was meant to be in.
	www.islandone.org /SpencerAvLeakReports/AvWeek-930830.html (1988 words)

	Regulating orbital debris
		In nearly half a century now, more than 4,000 satellites have been orbited, leaving spent satellites, launcher stages and other fragments from collisions in their wake.
		In addition, over 170 such objects have fragmented in orbit, spawning a debris population of varying sizes.
		One of the most effective end-of-life measures is to de-orbit launchers and satellites or boost them to a graveyard orbit, then passivate them to prevent debris cluttering operational orbits.
	www.cnes.fr /web/print-1713-regulating-orbital-debris.php (368 words)

	Physics Today October 2001
		UARS is one of the oldest Earth-observing satellites still in orbit, and has been at risk since August 2000, when NASA decided to exclude it from its budget proposal for 2002.
		The six-and-a-half-ton UARS satellite has been in orbit since 1991, so losing it is a blow to scientists studying long-term atmospheric trends.
		The three current possibilities, according to NASA, are to boost UARS into a higher "graveyard" orbit, reduce its threat as a navigation risk by pushing it into an early uncontrolled reentry, or pick the satellite up with the space shuttle.
	www.aip.org /pt/vol-54/iss-10/p27.html (950 words)

	ScienceDaily: Space Debris Mitigation: The Case For A Code Of Conduct
		There is a lot of junk orbiting the Earth and the problem will worsen unless there are changes in how spacecraft operators operate.
		Orbiting Hazards -- University Of Chicago/ARGOS Satellite Experiment To Study Space Debris (January 19, 1999) -- Above the atmosphere bits and pieces of debris zip around the Earth at tens of thousands of miles an hour.
		Geosynchronous orbit -- A geosynchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit that has the same orbital period as the sidereal rotation period of the Earth.
	www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2005/04/050419110538.htm (2971 words)

	Space Debris Mitigation: The Case for a Code of Conduct
		It is too expensive to bring a spent craft all the way down from GEO to burn up, but graveyard parking is an adequate alternative.
		Ideally, if it were slowed and lowered at mission end to 200 km altitude it would naturally deorbit and burn up in about 24 hours; but this would take a lot of fuel.
		He cites a recent study which found that about 1/3 of satellite operators did boost their GEO craft at least 300 km out of the way, about 1/3 boosted them insufficiently to only 100-200 km and 1/3 just left them cluttering up the GEO ring.
	www.spacenewsfeed.co.uk /2005/17April2005_22.html (1525 words)

	The Orbital Recovery Group (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		Currently, telecommunications spacecraft are placed in a graveyard orbit as they deplete their on-board propellant loads near the end of the typical 10-15-year operation lifetimes - even though the satellites' revenue-generating communications relay payloads continue to function.
		Orbital Recovery Limited has identified more than 40 telecommunications satellites in orbit today that are candidates for life extension using the CX OLEV.
		In addition, the CX OLEV can be deployed to rescue spacecraft that have been placed in a wrong orbit, or which have become stranded in an incorrect orbital location during positioning maneuvers.
	www.orbitalrecovery.com /news11.html (626 words)

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