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this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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Nope. Orbits are defined as being passive and repeating trajectories.
They're also the default way things move in gravitational well, unless there's a collision or thrust. To be clear, geostationary orbits are way further out than the standard low-Earth orbits, like multiple Earth widths away. So, deorbiting a satellite from there requires a very sustained rocket boost, and if you just blow it up you'll get a slightly wider debris field of junk in random orbits and very little if anything re-entering.
It's a bit of an interesting aside that how easy orbits are to find is important for there being planets in the first place, or even galaxies. A collapsing cloud of dust and gas would end in a lone star or black hole every time, if some of the infalling matter didn't get "stuck".
When possible, deorbiting for safety is a standard thing, though. At least now that we worry about too much space junk; the Apollo engineers weren't thinking about it yet. It's always done by thrusting into the atmosphere.
Edit: And for geosynchronous satellites, they actually just move into a slightly higher graveyard orbit so they're at least out of the way.
Appreciate your response!
It clicked when you mentioned "multiple Earth widths" which made me realise how large space is and why my assumption of blasting debris out of orbit is so insane.
And your aside is now even more amazing given the vastness and the eons of time required to make it all function without it collapsing into a big hole. It's one thing to be slightly aware of space shenanigans and another to actually ponder.
I'm glad there are such safety standards.. just learnt of the Kessler Syndrome down below and it's a scary thought of humanity creating it's own prison
Thanks.
No problem! I should maybe point out that the moon is several times further yet, since you mentioned it. And that pretty much only communication satellites use GEO.
Here's a site where you can experience the solar system to scale, if you want to get it once and for all. It does take a while to get through. Interstellar distances are so much bigger there would be no point - it's basically just beyond direct comprehension.
The amount of space between planets is crazy. My old school had a scale model of the solar system using the same scale for size and distance.
On one end of campus there was a 12" yellow sun. Around campus were poles with little domes on top that had little pins with plant models suck in them.
Hmm, looks like there's actually several of these at universities. I have heard about them.
Wikipedia has a list. There's even more than one that incorporates Alpha Centauri, although one cheats by using a full trip around the Earth (the other one is in Finland and places Proxima in Australia).
My school was usa east coast. We had our Oort cloud at a school in europe.
That's also cool. How is it represented?
Not sure I I've never seen it. I think was just a bit of text on a wall.