▲ | mlindner 2 days ago | |
Not all sats in general have thrusters. There's many types of satellites, especially smaller ones, that use magnetorquers, and somtimes reaction wheels as well, to maintain orientation but have no propulsion. There's also satellites with no active attitude control at all and use passive means to maintain a somewhat static orientation. That can permanent magnets causing a tumbling linked to Earth's magnetic field, passive aerodynamic stabilization, or using Earth's gravity gradient to align the satellite. | ||
▲ | literalAardvark 20 hours ago | parent [-] | |
My bad. I meant all of these useful, long lived sats. I knew "all" would bite me in the ass, but it's a reasonable generalisation. Sats without active control last what... Weeks in LEO? |