A satellite providing internet services revolves around Earth in a circular orbit at an altitude of $750km$. A ground station directly below the satellite transmits an electromagnetic signal to it and receives a response signal immediately after the satellite receives the original signal. Assume that the satellite is directly overhead during the communication, the signal travels at the speed of light, and processing delays and atmospheric effects are negligible. Calculate the minimum time taken by a signal to travel from the ground station to the satellite and back to the ground station. Compare this with a typical geostationary satellite explaining the justification behind using LEO in place of geostationary satellite taking into account the fact that TVs do operate well without LEOs. Solution Since the satellite is directly overhead, the signal travels vertically to the satellite and back to the ground station. $t_{LEO} = \frac {2\times 750 \times 10^3}{3.0 \times 10^8} = 5.0 ms$ A t...
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