Standing Still

[Seeker89]

I've been reading into Geostationary orbit and I've been trying to get a ship to stay over the north pole, and I don't really know how.

The goal is for a satellite tower when using remotetech I talk to all orbiting satellites if need be.

Is that doable or should I just try landing the craft?

[Goudaba]

You can only set a spacecraft into Geo-stationary orbit if said spacecraft is at the equator of Kerbin.

Geo-stationary means matching the speed of your orbit to the rotation of the planet so your spacecraft always point at the same location.

I did something similar as you plan and what I did was set 4 satellites in a half Geo-stationary orbit (could have used only 3) and then sent a "main" relay satellite in polar circular orbit that can communicate with any available satellites around Kerbin and with a super-long range antenna for interplanetary missions.

If you use Large antennas on every satellites with this method, your "satellite tower" wont always communicate with your Geo-stationary ones, but it will when you are over either poles and the antennas will take care of the relay of the ones in your blind spot.

Hope this helped you.

[Greenspan]

No such thing as Geostationary orbit over North Pole, Geostationary is only possible over the equator.

[Atragon]

Because of the way orbital mechanics work, it isn't possible to have an orbit that places an object in a stationary position above anywhere other than the equator. (The planet is rotating on its axis, satellites in geostationary orbit simply orbit about the planet at an angular velocity matching the rotation of the planet. At the poles, the velocity of such a satellite would have to be 0, and would fall directly back to the planet. At any point other than the equator, the satellite will oscillate north and south relative to the ground as the plane of the orbit passes through the center of the planet.)

Your best bet would be to put a pair of satellites into a highly eccentric polar orbit with a Pe low over the south pole and an Ap high over the north pole (when I say high, you want it to have visibility to the north pole for >75% of its orbit). Both satellites should have the same period, but offset by 180 degrees in their orbit.

Those satellites will need to talk to a geostationary communications satellite with line of sight to KSC, or to a communications relay network, as they will not have direct line of sight to KSC for most of their orbit.

Edit: The usual first major step for remotetech is to get 1 geostationary satellite above KSC with a dish antenna pointed at Kerbin and a couple of extra (2 or 3), followed by 2-3 other satellites spaced equidistant in the same orbit with dishes pointed at kerbin and at each other. This will give 100% coverage of LKO up to some altitude with the exception of low over the poles, which is where polar satellites like I described above come in.

An alternative is to setup a belt of 6+ satellites in LKO at ~750km altitude with omnidirectional antenna. With that altitude and quantity, each satellite (assuming equal spacing and the same orbital period) should see its two neighbors, and one satellite should have a view of KSC. You can then add another belt at ~90 degrees inclination to get polar coverage.

There are pros and cons for both approaches.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Atragon
More info

[SuperBigD60]

check out Tundra Orbits

they're like geo-sync orbits but more useful for northern latitudes

siriusXM sattelites use these I think