7:8 or 8:9 Resonance for 8 Satellites?

[waterlubber]

I would like to know if I should use a 7:8 resonance or an 8:9 resonance for deploying 8 satellites into KEO.

Here's how I plan to do it:

1. Place main craft in GEO
   
2. Put main craft in a 7:8/8:9 resonance of the current orbit of GEO
   
3. At each apogee, release a satellite
   
4. Circularize each satellite
   

(It's a GPS constellation)

Also, should they be in polar GEO?

Alright, so after some back-of-the-napkin calculations, I realized it needed a 7:8 resonance, but one question remains:

Polar or Equatorial/Inclined orbit? I want every spot on Kerbin to be LOS of one of the transmitters, how do I do that?

Edited November 28, 2014 by waterlubber

[DeMatt]

Either resonance will work. The 7:8 resonance will take less time, as you can release a satellite every 7/8ths of a geostationary orbit, instead of every 9/8ths. Note that the 9:8 resonance means you will be releasing satellites at perigee.

It's worth noting that real-world global navigation systems don't put their satellites into geostationary - instead, they've got half-day orbital periods. Similarly, they're not in equatorial orbit - GPS has six orbits all at 55 degrees inclination, while GLONASS has three orbits at 64.8 degrees.

[waterlubber]

Thanks! I didn't bother caluculating (drawing pretty pictures with circles) 9:8 after I saw 7:8 worked, but the inclinations hopefully will work. I'll go half geo at a 75 degree inclination, then maybe some at 90.

[LordFerret]

At first, I thought you were trying to put up the Iridium constellation. A full GPS constellation (currently) is 24 satellites... Iridium is 72.