Orbits "nearby" both gravity wells are unstable. Knowing that geostationary orbits are stable enough in the earth-moon system for commercial purposes, I think low earth orbit weather satellites would remain stable in a "small" change like Earth-Mercury. Someone with a lot more spare time on their hands will have to figure out at what point geostationary comsat orbits become unusably unstable. I have a gut feeling, not having run the numbers, that a Earth-Jupiter system might not even have stable low earth orbits for weather satellites, much less high orbit geosync for comsats.
If for example, Mars, eliminated stable enough comsat orbits, you could put transponders on the surface of Mars for Earth use. And vice versa, I guess.
I would imagine this would greatly complicate the design and operation of a usable space tether / elevator. With obvious exceptions like absolutely perfect tidal locking would mean its pretty easy to string a lightly tensioned rope from one planet to the other.
At some point I imagine even "launch loop" technology would get messed up gravitationally. Building a computer stabilized ultra small scale launch loop (like maybe 50 feet?) has always been an "in my infinite spare time" experiment idea. They're very stable under ideal conditions, the hard/fun part is all in the spinup/spindown and in perturbations and active oscillation dampening. You want a launch LOOP aka circle, not a launch LISSAJOUS.
There's more to life than just spacecraft, of course. But it is a kinda interesting topic.
I'm completely talking out of my ass, but I think Jupiter would also block out the sun. But even with that, Earth would still be a VERY hot place, right? All that pressure from Jupiter must create some heat (along with the increased volcanic activity), I'm guessing. Also, am I wrong to think that Jupiter has got to look bigger than that?
Macabre as it is, it's really fun to think about this stuff.
Moon produces a 1m high tide in the ocean (I recollect from years ago). Moon is 1/80 of Earth mass, Jupiter is 300+ Earth masses, so 24000x as high a gravitational pull....
Well, more than tides, it would produce probably-unsurvivable levels of volcanism.
The Roche limit of Jupiter is apparently 242,000 km (I think I'm using the right one, at scale Earth has no tensile strength), and the closest the Moon ever comes is 363,104, putting us barely outside of it, but Earth is still getting pretty roiled.
Oh, and to be clear, when I say "unsurvivable", I mean for life in general. Certainly we're not looking at anything like modern multicelluar life, we're looking at what we today call "extremophiles", if we're lucky. This puts us 60,000km closer to Jupiter than Io, and also the Jupiter system is quite full of radiation. I don't know if Earth's magnetic field could shield us, and I also don't know what Jupiter's tides would do to it.
Interesting note: A World out of Time by Larry Niven ends up with Earth in Jupiter orbit. However, it was orbiting much further out. The Jovian system isn't necessarily intrinsically hostile, it's just this puts Earth way too close to it.
If for example, Mars, eliminated stable enough comsat orbits, you could put transponders on the surface of Mars for Earth use. And vice versa, I guess.
I would imagine this would greatly complicate the design and operation of a usable space tether / elevator. With obvious exceptions like absolutely perfect tidal locking would mean its pretty easy to string a lightly tensioned rope from one planet to the other.
At some point I imagine even "launch loop" technology would get messed up gravitationally. Building a computer stabilized ultra small scale launch loop (like maybe 50 feet?) has always been an "in my infinite spare time" experiment idea. They're very stable under ideal conditions, the hard/fun part is all in the spinup/spindown and in perturbations and active oscillation dampening. You want a launch LOOP aka circle, not a launch LISSAJOUS.
There's more to life than just spacecraft, of course. But it is a kinda interesting topic.