According to this (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_at_Lagrange_points) there are currently about 6 satellites at L1 and 5 more planned to be put there.
I don’t understand how they don’t collide with each other since the closer to the centre surely the less fuel needed to stay at L1.
In: 3
“At” is loosely defined. Look up “Halo orbit” and “Lissajous orbit”. A halo orbit might be 100,000 km across. There’s plenty of room, at least for now.
It might take less fuel to maintain position at or close to L1, but it also takes more fuel to get there than to insert into a loose halo. I reckon there’s a sweet spot somewhere, but I don’t know exactly where that might be. There are other reasons to prefer being somewhat offset from the Earth-Sun line, too. For instance, radio communications is harder when there’s a big bright radio noisemaker directly behind you.
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