Kakai wrote:Most curious indeed. I think they shouldn't be able to, by our state of tech. On the other hand, GPS satellites manage it - if you check the maps, you can see them as far north as Canada... Although maybe they're moving? Make of it what you want:
https://in-the-sky.org/satmap.phpAnyway, my guess as to futuristic SNARCs would be that either Federation managed to lock satellites on geostationary orbit out of the equator or SNARCs have some sort of propulsion system that allows them to correct their positions to stay in on some sort of geostationary-looking orbit for long periods of time.
Or they're like helicopters, with future anti-grav tech instead of a rotor.
The GPS satellites are orbiting earth, the orbits are calculated so you get the maximum coverage possible unless there is a need for better accuracy which entails adjusting the orbits and concentrating them over a specific area.
You can put satellites in stationary orbits which in essence means that the satellites matches the planets rotation but this practice is constrained to equatorial orbits. You can also use the Lagrange points to place a satellite in a stationary spot relative to the planet and another celestial body but this has the downside that traditional communications are done purely by line of sight.
At least that is what I remember from my physics class.
If we take into account the Federation tech-level I don't really see why a satellite should be constrained to an equatorial orbit.
