Flywheels / NEO Retrieval

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970630a.html would seem to
indicate that the Van Allen belts don't extend up to GEO.

MEO would suffer from it but careful design would work, also at the present
time there aren't many satellites there but there will be very shortly. Most
are in either GEO or LEO.

--- rmenich@... wrote:
> Ryan Healey wrote,
>
> "From what I have heard solar cells lose about 10% of their power output
> going
> through the Van Allen belts when on their way to GEO."
>
> Maybe, but this is not a show-stopper. It is just a design consideration.
>
> According to http://www.encyclopedia.com/articlesnew/13333.html, the van
> Allen radiation belts include GEO:
>
> "
> Van Allen radiation belts: two belts (sometimes considered as a single
> belt of varying intensity) of radiation outside the earth's atmosphere,
> extending from c.400 to c.40,000 mi (c.650-c.65,000 km) above the earth
> "
>
> In my understanding, the inner belt is far stronger and more problematic
> for spacecraft design than the outer belt. But still, it is not as if GEO
> is completely free from such effects, and many spacecraft using solar
> cells function sucessfully for long periods of time there in what is ---
> relative to LEO --- a high radiation environment.
>
> Also note that part of the Teledesic constellation (c.f.,
>
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/tables/overview.html