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M Sonter, , "Equatorial Low Earth Orbit, an ideal orbit for In-Space Construction; and Equatorial Spaceports, as Gateways for Orbital Construction", Asteroid Enterprises Pty Ltd. ARCHIVE
Also downloadable from http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/equatorial low earth orbit an ideal orbit for in space construction.shtml
There are currently 222
 Bibliographic Index References and Referring Papers    Printable Version  documents in the archive.

Bibliography List
Asteroid Enterprises Pty
Ltd
E L E O , I -S
KEY DOCUMENTS
C ; E S , G Here are some key

O C documents from the archive

to get you started:
sontermj@tpg.com.au Mark Sonter
13-11-05 1. What the Growth of a
Space Tourism Industry
Large facilities in orbit will need to be assembled from smaller pieces, launched separately. Some of this assembly work will
Could Contribute to be
too complex for automated or teleoperated guidance and will need to be human-directed by spacewalking astronauts.
Employment, These
Economic
large facilities may comprise for instance, space solar power satellites, orbital hotels, some sort of zero-g factory
Growth,facilities, or
Environmental
future space stations tasked with assembly and launch of large spacecraft or other assets to GEO , to the Moon, or toEducation,
Protection,
interplanetary destinations (the ideal departure orbit being Equatorial Low Earth Orbit). Culture and World Peace
2. Space Tourism Market
Future construction of large facilities in orbit will be most efficiently carried out in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit,Demand and the
ELEO. This is not
only because (i) launch due east from the equator has the lowest delta-v requirement of any orbit; but also forTransportation
reasons of ease of
Infrastructure
rendezvous: (ii) no need for concern regarding differential orbit plane precession rates for orbits of differing altitudes; and (iii)
3. General Public Space
most importantly, the window for launch to rendezvous with an object already in ELEO orbit re-occurs every 90 minutes. This
Travel and Tourism
unequaled ease of rendezvous makes on-orbit delivery logistics very easy and essentially unconstrained, an important issue for
4. Artificial Gravity and the
construction activities.
Architecture of Orbital
Habitats
Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) was identified by the Japanese (eg, Nagatomo et al, 1993) as the orbit of choice for their
5. Prospects of Space
SPS2000 prototype solar power satellite, for reasons of (i) ease of access vis-a-vis GEO ; (ii) less demanding beampointing and
Tourism
focusing requirements than from GEO ; (iii) the ability to overfly the same groundsite rectenna every 90 minutes (unavailable to
any other orbit, and the next-best thing to being permanently overhead, as with a GEO orbit). More Documents
It is assumed that large structure construction will require at least some manned involvement. (This was found to be a crucial
Home
need – and a ‘show-stopper’- for assembly of the SPS 2000 .) Launches (both of cargo and crew) from a near-equatorial launch
site are thus highly desirable. About Space Future
What's New
The usefulness of ELEO was also noted by Brown (1991) in which he raised the concept of beaming microwave energy upward to
Directory of
an orbital industrial park in low equatorial orbit, as a lightweight alternative to solar panel power. He also proposed theContents
beaming
of microwave power from Earth to boost ion-powered orbital transfer vehicles delivering satellites from ELEO to GEO or to Earth-
Topics
escape trajectories. Space Tourism
Space eccentric
Facilities, once constructed in ELEO, may then be moved to the final orbit of choice, by being boosted into a highly Vehicles orbit,
then given any necessary required plane change at apogee with very little delta-v cost, then returned to the desired altitude by use
Space Habitat
of aerobraking at perigee. Space Power

Given that equatorial low earth obit is a desirable location for in-orbit construction, it follows that equatorialSpace Future
launch Journal
sites are
therefore also necessary. These sites need to be within about 5 degrees of the equator, because the delta-vPapers for plane change
& Publications
becomes ‘too expensive’ at higher latitudes. See table below. Library
Bibliography
Launch latitude (degrees N or S of Equator) Delta-v for plane change to 0 deg. (km/sec) Who's Who
Glossary of Terms
0 0
Links to Other Sites
2.5 0.35
Search
5 0.70
7.5 1.05
10 1.39 WHAT'S NEW
12.5 1.74 29 July 2012
Added "Space Debris
and Its Mitigation " to
Formula is: delta v = 2 V sin (theta/2) where V is orbital velocity and theta is orbit plane angle to equator. the archive.
16 July 2012
Launch latitudes above about 5 degrees demand excessive plane change velocity changes. Space Future has been
on something of a
This ‘latitude constraint’ is much more demanding than for GEOsats, because of the much reduced orbital circular velocity
hiatus of at the
late. With
geosynchronous altitude, and therefore the much lower plane change delta-v demand on the GEOsat Apogeeconcept
Kick Motor.
of Space
Tourism steadily
Launch sites within 5 degrees of the equator can be considered from the world map below. increasing in
acceptance, and the
advances of
commercial space,
much of our purpose
could be said to be
achieved. But this
industry is still nascent,
and there's much to do.
So...watch this space.
9 December 2010
Updated "What the
Growth of a Space
Tourism Industry Could
Contribute to
Employment, Economic
Growth, Environmental
Protection, Education,
Culture and World
Peace " to the 2009
revision.
7 December 2008
"What the Growth of a
Space Tourism Industry
Could Contribute to
Employment, Economic
Growth, Environmental
Protection, Education,
Culture and World
Peace " is now the top
Starting from South America, we have the following potential launch site locations, with open sea to the eastentry
for ease of recovery
on Space Future's
of first stage boosters: Key Documents list.
30 November 2008
French Guiana (hosting the Kourou Space Launch Centre); and Brazil (Alcantara Launch Site); Added Lynx to the
Kenya (hosting Italy’s San Marco launch platform); Vehicle Designs page.
Somalia (politically non-viable failed state);
Seychelles and Maldives (very limited land areas available); More Subscribe
Eastern Indonesia (Moluccas, Halmahera, West Papua; problems at present of civil instability);
Papua New Guinea (PNG) - Sepik, Manus, New Ireland provinces; SFJ TOP STORIES
Nauru (remote, limited facilities, amenities and workforce); Banaba (nil facilities or workforce); How Much Do You Know
Southern Marshall Islands (very limited land; Kwajalein launch site is too far north); About Space
Kiribati (remote, small land mass, but Japanese interest in construction of Spaceport); (note SeaLaunch launches from east
Space Future Editor Wins
of Kiribati); NewSpace Journalism
Award
and finally,
China's First Manned
Galapagos Islands. Docking of Space Module
Is a Success
Clearly PNG is a location of choice, having a stable and democratic political system, open economy and transparent legal system,
Five Horrifying Facts
availability of an English-speaking technical workforce, and ready air and sea access from both Australia and Japan (and Russia).
NASA Will Pay You to Eat
There were earlier proposals to develop launch sites in PNG, to launch Protons or Zenits from a site initiallyAstronaut
to haveFood
been on the
eastern end of Manus Island and subsequently chosen as Emirau Island, some 250 km east (Flight International 1 Teachers:
Attention Dec 1993).
If You
These proposals failed to obtain finance because they were too big, too early, reliant on a single vehicle supplier andtoreliant
Don't Apply This on a
single market segment ( GEO comsats) that failed to develop as expected. Workshop
Space Is Dirty
We (Asteroid Enterprises Pty Ltd together with Papua New Guinean colleagues) propose to revisit these proposals with the
The Film That NASA
relevant authorities, and we envisage initially a small multi-user site with the ability to service all launch azimuths and suborbital
Banned
as well as orbital launches, and then expanding as launch rate and customer base builds, to eventually fulfill the construction-
gateway role described above. We would appreciate any and all feedback.