[amsat-bb] Re: could we raise orbit etc.

[don]

Kevin,
I agree that the earth's field is miniscule, but that wasn't really the 
mechanism for orbital change that I was proposing.
  I was really thinking (?) about the interactions between the earth and 
the sun's ( or another planet...Jupiter?) magnetic fields.
  The Earths field is not a classic dipole system, and continually 
changes with (solar) activity. My thought was maybe these changes could 
be utilised to very slowly change the crafts attitude and increase its 
apogee.
  The magnet/coil systems presently used to control attitude do interact 
with the earths field, but this is done to maintain a reasonably stable 
orbit. If the units could be operated to coincide with changes in the 
fields encountered in space then the orbit will change!
  The trick would be predicting when to operate the systems to give the 
desired result.
  This would be immensely complicated but I suppose dreams are free.

This link may be interest, it shows some of the research being done in 
this area. I'm sure there are others, NASA has some good stuff as well.

http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin121/bul121b_laakso.pdf

Thanks for your previous reply.

Don Zl1THO