earle (03/16/83)
The article I referred to was in the February 1983 issue of L-5 News, not Space World as I said yesterday. For a 200 km. orbit, the ET decays in almost no time at all, but if you can get it into a 500 km. orbit its "natural" life will be up to about 5 1/2 years, but with tethered minimum drag orientation that goes to over 35 years! To give credit where it is due, the L-5 News article was by David Brin. Earle T. Fettig GenRad Concord, MA