What is the difference between man-made satellites and the moon that causes the former to drift towards the earth but the latter drift away?
i.e. they are already 'locked'.No, geostationary satellites do not experience positive or negative acceleration from tidal forces (to any appreciable degree, at least). They are not orbiting faster than the Earth is revolving, so they don’t get slowed down by trying to drag the Earth along and speed it up. They are also not orbiting more slowly than the planet revolves, so they are not flung up by the Earth trying to speed them up.
No.i.e. they are already 'locked'.
All the others are going round faster so any tidal effect would be speeding the Earth up and slowing them down. But until the total mass of artificial satellites becomes comparable with the mass of the Moon, it won't be measurable.
No; again, man-made satellites are far too small to cause noticeable tidal effects.Thus, geostationary satellites can operate significantly longer with same amount of energy than non-stationary ones, as the first ones do have to compensate positive ore negative tidal acceleration effects during their life time?
That is not the same thing as causing decay. It just means the path taken isn't smooth. The mechanism by which the tides cause the moon to drift away requires that it be pulling against it's own tidal bulge.Please, with disclaimer that the Earth is not uniform, it is a lumpy oblate spheroid at best, and the resulting gravity effects produce wibbles in orbits, compounded by Lunar and Solar tides.
No...Remember the difficulties Apollo etc had with Lunar mascons affecting, even destabilising low orbits ??
Geostationary communications satellites do need to expend station keeping fuel to maintain their assigned position. My understanding is that the primary influence is from the moon which tends to cause orbits to precess out of the equatorial plane.Errata corrected
Thus, geostationary satellites can operate siginificantly longer with same amount of energy than non-stationary ones, as the first ones do not have to compensate positive ore negative tidal acceleration effects during their life time?