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Orbital lifetime of satellites in Low Earth Orbit

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  1. Kuromantis
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    A neat (and presumably pretty old by the site design) article about how long satellites will last in Low Earth Orbits with varying eccentricity and perigees alongside satellites with different...

    A neat (and presumably pretty old by the site design) article about how long satellites will last in Low Earth Orbits with varying eccentricity and perigees alongside satellites with different amounts of drag, alongside explaining the various forces that cause this orbital decay. It also highlights how setting the lower boundary of space at ~100 kms is, while not an entirely arbitrary decision with stuff like the Karman Line, where a plane would need to travel at orbital speed to achieve lift, is fairly deceptive for actual satellites, which according to the article won't last more than a few weeks below 250 kms. Wikipedia cites an estimate that Sputnik which orbited Earth at an orbit with a 215 km perigee and a 939 km apogee lasted 2 months in orbit.

    The following table provides a very rough guide to the lifetime of an object in a circular or near circular orbit at various altitudes.

    Satellite Altitude Lifetime
    200 km 1 day
    300 km 1 month
    400 km 1 year
    500 km 10 years
    700 km 100 years
    900 km 1000 years
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