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Nope, you're not understanding the issue.

If you launch the first sat into Orbit A, it still has the orbital velocity of the Earth. Unless you can slow the first sat down a lot, it will continue to track along in about the same place as the Earth.

Waiting 6 months will accomplish very little in that case. The reason is, in 6 months, the Earth and the first sat will be in nearly the same place.

The key concept is known as "delta-v" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v). It's the change-in-velocity allowed by a certain amount of fuel. Here's some more on the STEREO mission trajectory: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/orbit.shtml It's worth it to watch the movie.

Gravity assist can help a lot, but it also takes a lot of time.



Agreed. I missed it. You'd probably have to wait something like 8 years for a long-term solution. With American ADD, wouldn't count on it actually happening.


Also, the people who design the missions eventually get old and retire. At some point, they have to take the human time scale into account.




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