Monday, July 11, 2022

Skipstone

ht ToughSf - from October 2020 we got a review of Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion. Best I gather, these are satellites which get their energy from the Sun and batteries, which they expend upon ramjet-like scooping of the exosphere. What might be drag for a higher satellite, is simply a propellant-source for this satellite.

Other LEO satellites need to carry their own propellant for course-corrections and, at end-of-life, deorbit. For the ABEP if something goes wrong, it... burns up. It doesn't become space junk.

BACKDATE 7/18 obviously. Had a gap to fill.

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