Orbital Mechanics & Small Satellite Lab · Saebyeol University (fictional)

Every 95 minutes, SB-1 comes back around.

ORBIT Lab builds small satellites, computes the orbits they fly, tracks the debris that shares those orbits, and lays out constellations that a single ground station can serve.

Run the orbit calculator Contact the lab

SB-1525 km · 97.5° · 95.1 min
D-7780 km · 86.4° · 100.5 min
Ring-241,100 km · 53.0° · 107.3 min

Example calculation · periods to scale, heights drawn 3.5× · 1 s = 4 min

Altitudes

Higher orbit, longer year

Four orbits from this site, placed by altitude. Each period comes from Kepler’s third law, T = 2π√(a³/μ), with a = Earth radius + altitude.

Station-like

420 km

min per orbit
93.0

orbits a day
15.49

inclination
51.6°

reference
SB-1

525 km

min per orbit
95.1

orbits a day
15.14

inclination
97.5°

3U CubeSat · in orbit since Jun 2024
D-7

780 km

min per orbit
100.5

orbits a day
14.34

inclination
86.4°

Tracked debris object · fictional catalogue no.
Ring-24

1,100 km

min per orbit
107.3

orbits a day
13.42

inclination
53.0°

Constellation shell under study

Research

Three problems, one sky

Small Satellite Systems

How small can a satellite be and still do one job well for five years — and leave orbit when it is done?

11 papers

Read the topic See its papers
Orbit Determination & Debris

Where exactly is a fragment no one has catalogued, and how sure are we?

9 papers

Read the topic See its papers
Constellation & Ground-Track Design

How many satellites, in which planes, so that one ground station hears from them often enough?

10 papers

Read the topic See its papers

Orbit Calculator

Pick an altitude and an inclination. Get the period, the passes and the track.

The same equations as the hero, with Earth’s flattening (J2) added. Students use it in the orbital mechanics course.

Period: 95.1 min
Orbits a day: 15.14
Track shift per orbit: 23.8 ° west
Passes over the ground station: 3.2 a day

Open the calculator

Ground track of SB-1 over 24 hours (example calculation)

Publications

Paper log

Checked weekly against OpenAlex and Crossref · last checked Oct 26, 2026

27 2026.09

“Ground-track repeat design for a 24-plane shell with uneven launch slots”

Journal of Spaceflight Geometry

Intl. Journal
26 2026.07

“Short-arc orbit determination of uncatalogued fragments from a single optical site”

Orbital Debris Science

Intl. Journal
24 2026.06

“Eighteen months of thermal telemetry from a 3U CubeSat in a dawn–dusk orbit”

International Symposium on Small Spacecraft Operations (ISSO 2026)

Intl. Conf.
23 2026.04

「3U 큐브위성 자세 제어용 자기 토커의 궤도 위 보정」

한국우주시스템학회지(가상)

Dom. Journal
25 2026.03

“Covariance realism for low-thrust conjunction screening below 600 km”

Journal of Spaceflight Geometry

Intl. Journal

All publications

People

Crew manifest

Principal investigator

Prof. Haneul Cho

Astrodynamics and small-satellite systems. SB-1 mission lead.

Professor All members Alumni

As of Oct 1, 2026
Ph.D. Students	4	Doyun Han Minjae Park Yujin Jung Seoyun Lee
M.S. Students	4	Eunseo Moon Jiho Kwon Taeyang Shin Nari Oh
Undergraduate Researchers	2	Gaeun Yoon Hyunwoo Baek
Research Staff	1	Sora Kim