What is a disadvantage of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit?

What is a disadvantage of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit?

• A. Far from Earth, leading to resolution and signal limitations
• B. Low altitude causing frequent handovers
• C. High energy costs to reach orbit
• D. Unstable orbital inclination

Answer: (A)

Geosynchronous Earth Orbit puts satellites about 35,786 km above the equator, so they stay over roughly the same ground spot but are very far away. That distance means the signal has to travel a long way, which increases path loss and requires more power or larger antennas to maintain a usable link. It also creates noticeable latency—roughly 240 milliseconds for a round trip—which makes real-time communication and interactive applications challenging. On the imaging side, being so far away reduces ground resolution because the same spacecraft aperture covers a much larger area on the surface. These distance-related effects—weakening signals and lower effective resolution due to the long reach—are the key disadvantages of GEO. The other statements don’t describe GEO's main drawbacks: it isn’t a low-altitude orbit (so frequent handovers aren’t the primary issue), and while reaching GEO requires substantial energy, the defining challenge is the long distance; orbital inclination is typically managed with station-keeping rather than being inherently unstable.

Geosynchronous Earth Orbit puts satellites about 35,786 km above the equator, so they stay over roughly the same ground spot but are very far away. That distance means the signal has to travel a long way, which increases path loss and requires more power or larger antennas to maintain a usable link. It also creates noticeable latency—roughly 240 milliseconds for a round trip—which makes real-time communication and interactive applications challenging. On the imaging side, being so far away reduces ground resolution because the same spacecraft aperture covers a much larger area on the surface. These distance-related effects—weakening signals and lower effective resolution due to the long reach—are the key disadvantages of GEO. The other statements don’t describe GEO's main drawbacks: it isn’t a low-altitude orbit (so frequent handovers aren’t the primary issue), and while reaching GEO requires substantial energy, the defining challenge is the long distance; orbital inclination is typically managed with station-keeping rather than being inherently unstable.