Geostationary Satellite network help

[JeramyM]

Okay, so apparently I am not NASA material. I am trying to set up a satellite network around Kerbin. I have a launch vehicle capable of getting all 4 into orbit at the same time, but am at a loss on how to get them space properly, and preferably one over ksc. Sorry if this has already been asked, any help or links to another thread answering this would be greatly appreciated.

Edited August 3, 2013 by JeramyM

[dlmarti]

Design a ship with a decent delta-v, which carries 4 satellites, which have some measure of delta-v.

Move the ship to the first orbit, place the first satellite.

switch to the satellite and fine tune the orbit to be as perfect as you need.

Switch back to the ship and drop to a lower orbit, slowly moving into position for the next drop.

Rinse repeat.

As alternative you could just launch them one at a time, from a very simple launch vehicle, which will probably be significantly easier.

[UbioZur]

Let's use our Scott Manley reference

He posted a video to set up 3 geostationary satellite.

This should give you an idea on how it can be done.

[JeramyM]

Yay, I figured it out. Couldn't watch the video, I live in the sticks, so interwebs are far too slow for video.

I cheated a bit. Got my launch vehicle into a parking orbit. Chose 1434.375, cause it was half of my target orbit of 2868.75. quick saved(the cheating in my opinion) undocked my first satellite and waited until it hit 0 degrees longitude over planet surface and started my maneuver to my final orbit, raised ap, then circularized at next ap. Looked at what longitude I was over (53 degrees for these guys, i'm sure that would change based on twr) quick loaded, did some basic math and did the maneuver again to get a geosynchronous orbit over ksc.

The hardest part was converting from east to west. kept forgetting longitude increases going east, decreases going west.

Yay! I win physics! Suck it, NASA.

[UbioZur]

Good job on it

[Cap'tain Kerk]

I learned this from youtube. Have at least 3 satellites. Get to an orbit of 1227 km. Then only put the apoapsis to 2868. That make u a 4 hr orbit (kerbal is 6hr orbit). Go to apoasis with your ship and drop a satellite there. Make it circumlarise to 2868 km. Get back to ur main ship and do a complete revolution and once back to apoapsis drop another sat. Do the same for the last one. I use remote tech and after one or 2 revolution my 1st sat is often right over ksp.

After u done that, do it with 3 other sat but in a polar orbit (90deg).

[Cap'tain Kerk]

i did post a quick reply but i dont know where it went , anyway..

Take at least 3 sat with u. Get to 1227 km orbit. Then raise apoapsis to 2868 km. Stay as close as possible at these numbers. (That make a 4 hr orbit around kerbin, which has 6 hr rotation period.)

Get to the apoapsis, drop a sat there and make it circumlarise (the probe, not the ship) to 2868. Do a complete revolution and once back to apoapsis drop another sat and circumlarise it. Do the same for the last probe. Launch another 3 satellites and do the same with the polar orbit (90deg).

[ctbram]

Unfortunately this assumes you have satellites that are small enough and compact enough to fit in a single rocket. For complex and heavy satelllites it is hard to carry the entire network of them up and deploythem using the 4h period orbit technique.

[Scramble]

Personally I do a little bit of cheating. I use RemoteTech and so getting the satellite network properly set up is particularly important. I have managed to get satellites nicely spaced into a (almost) synchronous orbit, but getting the orbit completely perfect has been a bit of an issue. Even with the tiniest RCS burst, I have not managed to get it 100% right, even though I make fully retrograde/prograde aligned burns at apoapsis/periapsis. The problem is the satellites will start to drift, and with a bit of time warp e.g. after going to other planets, the satellites end up all over the place.

So what I ended up doing in the end is I cheat a little. I take the time to get the satellites into orbit as perfect as I can get it with a reasonable time investment, and then I let my "control center guys" take it over from there. I.e. I figured out how to use the HyperEdit mod to manipulate orbits using the Advanced tab, and for me that is about as real as it gets. Real world space centers don't have one guy running everything. I am perfectly happy to cheat a bit to simulate not having to micro-manage everything. Means I can spend time on something else I'd rather do ... it's a game after all.