Editing Geosynchronous orbit (section)

== History ==
[[File:Clarke sm.jpg|thumb|upright|The geosynchronous orbit was popularised by the science fiction author [[Arthur C. Clarke]], and is thus sometimes called the Clarke Orbit.]]
In 1929, [[Herman Potočnik]] described both geosynchronous orbits in general and the special case of the geostationary Earth orbit in particular as useful orbits for [[space station]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Noordung |first=Hermann |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AHerman_Poto%C4%8Dnik_Noordung_-_Das_Problem_der_Befahrung_des_Weltraums.pdf&page=102 |title=Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: Der Raketen-Motor |publisher=Richard Carl Schmidt & Co. |year=1929 |location=Berlin |pages=98–100 |format=PDF}}</ref> The first appearance of a geosynchronous [[orbit]] in popular literature was in October 1942, in the first [[Venus Equilateral]] story by [[George O. Smith]],<ref name="VE">"(Korvus's message is sent) to a small, squat building at the outskirts of Northern Landing. It was hurled at the sky. ... It ... arrived at the relay station tired and worn, ... when it reached a space station only five hundred miles above the city of North Landing." {{cite book |last=Smith |first=George O.|author-link=George O. Smith |title=The Complete Venus Equilateral |date=1976 |publisher=[[Ballantine Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-345-28953-7 |pages=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lj8H3R4J5GUC&q=squat}}</ref> but Smith did not go into details. British [[science fiction]] author [[Arthur C. Clarke]] popularised and expanded the concept in a 1945 paper entitled ''Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?'', published in ''[[Wireless World]]'' magazine. Clarke acknowledged the connection in his introduction to ''The Complete Venus Equilateral''.<ref name="VEintro">"It is therefore quite possible that these stories influenced me subconsciously when ... I worked out the principles of synchronous communications satellites ...", {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/arthurcclarkeaut00mcal/page/54 |page=54 |title=Arthur C. Clarke |first=Neil |last=McAleer |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-809-24324-2 |publisher=Contemporary Books}}</ref><ref name="clarke"/> The orbit, which Clarke first described as useful for broadcast and relay communications satellites,<ref name="clarke">{{cite magazine |first=Arthur C. |last=Clarke |author-link=Arthur C. Clarke |url=http://www.clarkefoundation.org/docs/ClarkeWirelessWorldArticle.pdf |title=Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage? |date=October 1945 |magazine=[[Wireless World]] |pages=305–308 |access-date=March 4, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318000548/http://www.clarkefoundation.org/docs/ClarkeWirelessWorldArticle.pdf |archive-date=March 18, 2009}}</ref> is sometimes called the Clarke Orbit.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[NASA]] |url=http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf5-1.php |title=Basics of Space Flight Section 1 Part 5, Geostationary Orbits |access-date=August 25, 2019 |editor=Phillips Davis}}</ref> Similarly, the collection of artificial satellites in this orbit is known as the Clarke Belt.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/science_fiction/jenkins/jenkins_4.html |title=Orbit Wars: Arthur C. Clarke and the Global Communications Satellite |last= Mills |first=Mike |magazine=The Washington Post Magazine |date=August 3, 1997 |pages=12–13 |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Syncom 2 side.jpg|[[Syncom#Syncom 2|Syncom 2]]: The first functional geosynchronous satellite|thumb|left]]

In technical terminology, the geosynchronous orbits are often referred to as geostationary if they are roughly over the equator, but the terms are used somewhat interchangeably.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Satellites and satellite remote senssing:{{vague|reason=check source todetermine if spelling error is our editor’s, or the source’s: one calls for ‘’[[sic]]’’ tagging; the other for mere correction.|date=October 2020}} --> Orbits |title=Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences |edition=2 |year=2015 |pages=95–106 |last=Kidder |first=S.Q. |editor-first=Gerald |editor-last=North |editor-first2=John |editor-last2=Pyla |editor-first3=Fuqing |editor-last3=Zhang |doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-382225-3.00362-5 |publisher=Elsiver|isbn=978-0-12-382225-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=C.D. |last=Brown |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpilMLP7OHQC&pg=PA81 |title=Spacecraft Mission Design |edition=2nd |publisher=AIAA Education Series |page=81 |isbn=978-1-60086-115-4}}</ref> Specifically, '''geosynchronous Earth orbit''' ('''GEO''') may be a synonym for ''geosynchronous [[Near-equatorial orbit|equatorial orbit]]'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Ariane 5 User's Manual Issue 5 Revision 1 |url=http://www.arianespace.com/launch-services-ariane5/Ariane5_users_manual_Issue5_July2011.pdf |publisher=Ariane Space |access-date=28 July 2013 |date=July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215844/http://www.arianespace.com/launch-services-ariane5/Ariane5_users_manual_Issue5_July2011.pdf |archive-date=4 October 2013 }}</ref> or ''geostationary Earth orbit''.<ref name=NASA2001/>

The first geosynchronous satellite was designed by [[Harold Rosen (electrical engineer)|Harold Rosen]] while he was working at [[Hughes Aircraft]] in 1959. Inspired by [[Sputnik 1]], he wanted to use a geostationary (geosynchronous equatorial) satellite to globalise communications. Telecommunications between the US and Europe was then possible between just 136 people at a time, and reliant on [[high frequency]] radios and an [[Submarine communications cable|undersea cable]].<ref name=dm>{{Cite magazine|first=Jack|last=McClintock|date=November 9, 2003|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2003/nov/communications|title=Communications: Harold Rosen – The Seer of Geostationary Satellites|website=Discover Magazine |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref>

Conventional wisdom at the time was that it would require too much [[rocket]] power to place a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit and it would not survive long enough to justify the expense,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/harold-rosen-1926-2017-53790|title=Harold Rosen, 1926–2017|publisher=Caltech|last=Perkins|first=Robert|date=January 31, 2017 |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref> so early efforts were put towards constellations of satellites in [[low Earth orbit|low]] or [[Medium Earth Orbit|medium]] Earth orbit.<ref name="lat"/> The first of these were the passive [[Project Echo|Echo balloon satellites]] in 1960, followed by [[Telstar 1]] in 1962.<ref>{{cite book|title=Beyond The Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication|year=1997|chapter-url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/ch6.htm |first=Daniel R.|last=Glover |editor=Andrew J Butrica|publisher=NASA |chapter=Chapter 6: NASA Experimental Communications Satellites, 1958-1995|bibcode=1997bify.book.....B}}</ref> Although these projects had difficulties with signal strength and tracking that could be solved through geosynchronous satellites, the concept was seen as impractical, so Hughes often withheld funds and support.<ref name="lat">{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-syncom-satellite-20130726-dto-htmlstory.html|title=How a satellite called Syncom changed the world|first=Ralph|last=Vartabedian|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=July 26, 2013 |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref><ref name=dm/>

By 1961, Rosen and his team had produced a cylindrical prototype with a diameter of {{convert|76|cm|in}}, height of {{convert|38|cm|in}}, weighing {{convert|11.3|kg|lb}}; it was light, and small, enough to be placed into orbit by then-available rocketry, was [[Spin-stabilisation|spin stabilised]] and used dipole antennas<!-- As a physicist/engineer, I boldly changed the grammatical number of “antenna”, in the belief that a single antenna could not have been economically/logistically efficient. A reliable source should be sought, however. --> producing a pancake-shaped waveform.  <!-- “pancake-shaped waveform” is plainly nonsense:  Most likely what was intended is to insinuate that dispersion out of a preferred plane was limited; it‘s plausible that it reflects nothing more than our colleague misconstruing a graphic that was  intended to convey something entirely different. --><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1963-031A|publisher=NASA|title=Syncom 2|editor=David R. Williams |access-date=September 29, 2019}}</ref> In August 1961, they were contracted to begin building the working satellite.<ref name=dm/> They lost [[Syncom#Syncom 1|Syncom 1]] to electronics failure, but Syncom 2 was successfully placed into a geosynchronous orbit in 1963. Although its [[inclined orbit]] still required moving antennas, it was able to relay TV transmissions, and allowed for US President [[John F. Kennedy]] to phone Nigerian prime minister [[Abubakar Tafawa Balewa]] from a ship on August 23, 1963.<ref name="lat"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/worlds-first-geosynchronous-satellite-launched/|title=World's First Geosynchronous Satellite Launched|publisher=Foxtel|date=June 19, 2016|website=History Channel|access-date=August 25, 2019|archive-date=December 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207144926/https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/worlds-first-geosynchronous-satellite-launched/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Today there are hundreds of geosynchronous satellites providing [[remote sensing]], navigation and communications.<ref name=dm/><ref name=sdc20150426 />

Although most populated land locations on the planet now have terrestrial communications facilities ([[microwave]], [[fiber-optic]]), which often have latency and bandwidth advantages, and telephone access covering 96% of the population and internet access 90% as of 2018,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2018-PR40.aspx |title=ITU releases 2018 global and regional ICT estimates |publisher=[[International Telecommunication Union]] |access-date=August 25, 2019 |date=December 7, 2018}}</ref> some rural and remote areas in developed countries are still reliant on satellite communications.<ref>{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Geoff |title=Australia was promised superfast broadband with the NBN. This is what we got |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-23/what-happened-to-superfast-nbn/11037620 |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] |date=April 24, 2019 |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |publisher=[[CNET]] |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/in-rural-farm-country-forget-broadband-you-might-not-have-internet-at-all/ |title=In farm country, forget broadband. You might not have internet at all. 5G is around the corner, yet pockets of America still can't get basic internet access. |first=Shara |last=Tibken |date=October 22, 2018 |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref>