September 2009 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Re: dreamer
by w7lrd＠comcast.net 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Well said! I believe any and all satellite endeavors can in the long run be parlayed into more grandiose efforts. One thing that has always intrigued me is the possibility of a "benign" propulsion system for these LEO's. Our continued support for these university type efforts can possibly come back in spades down the road. 73 Bob W7LRD : Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:45:43 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: dreamer Jerry -- I share your nostalgia, and I've never even been able to work a HEO satellite! But if you are asking this question in earnest, it has to be said that even if we amateurs could compell the universities launching cubesats to do as you ask, the resources would not equal one HEO launch. Say a cubesat costs $80,000 to launch. If current HEO cost estimates are correct, and we're looking at over $10,000,000 for that launch cost, then we would need to harness the wealth of 125 cubesat teams just for the launch cost. I don't think any university is going to wait for that. There is an oft-repeated misapprehension lurking under here, too, and that is that the wealth going into the cubesat launches is money that would otherwise be spent on a HEO amateur satellite. Cubesats are (in large part) university projects aiming to give students access to the process of designing, launching and controlling a satellite. They are attractive to granting agencies (and even launch agencies) because of their eduational potential. To my knowledge, during the design and launch of previous amateur HEOs, professors did not line up to apply for grant money to hand over to AMSAT-NA or -DL, as they are now lining up to apply for money to build cubesats. Contrarywise, I don't believe many of these cubesats have made any demands at all from the (hobby) amateur community to defray their costs. (Perhaps this is not the case in countries where the cubesat represents one of the country's first forays into space, such as Turkey.) In short, there is no evidence that cubesat activity is in any way reducing our opportunities to go to HEO again. Other, currently overwhelming, factors are doing that all by themselves. What the cubesat platform has done, though, is offered a regular, affordable launch opportunity for low LEO. We members of this list could probably muster enough money to launch our own satellite, designed here, and controlled by us, if we so wished! (I think at one point JoAnne tried to start a thread along those lines.) You mention RS birds: could we deploy a 10m antenna from a 10 cm^3 volume? Maybe a spooled-out wire? What kind of propulsion can we make to get from cubesat LEO to something with a better footprint? In my opinion, if we really are the descendents of the garage-engineers of OSCAR-1, we should be buying up pumpkin cubesat spaceframes and posting videos for each other of the cool things we've achieved in that limited, but not impossible, space. Here's some other ideas: 1. CW robot (a la RS) in a PIC. Can you do it in a single atmel atmega328? At 20 MHz? At 4? 2. PIC code so that the bird turns itself off over unpopulated areas. (I love my solo passes over the Atlantic when I have VO-52 all to myself, but I'd be willing to give them up for the greater good :-) Extra credit: have one chip do both of the above under a operating system 3. Antenna testing: hang a cubesat model up 50' in a tree with some funky antennas on it. Can you make them have the pattern you (we) want? 4. Propulsion. How much thrust can we safely get into a cube? 4. This one is completly impossible, but boy it would be nice to have a U/V transponder on a 10 cm^2 board. We'll have to wait years for someone to do that, though :-) We really, honestly, still can have fun. Maybe not the fun that some of you had back in the day, but there's lots of cool stuff to be undertaken. Finally, in that spirit, can I encourage everyone to join in on the cubesat launches in a few days? Watch the launch, get on internet chat and eavesdrop on the excited conversation of these young people. Join the global hunt for the proper keplerian elements for these birds, and copy what telemetry you can. We almost all of us have the skills and equipment to be part of a remarkable event. I can't tell you the thrill of letting these people know their baby is alive and beeping in space. 73, Bruce VE9QRP On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Jerry <W0SAT(a)msn.com> wrote: > Hi : I guess you could say I miss AO-10 . RS birds AO-40 > > FO-20 . > > I could go on and on. > > When I see all the cube sats launched and FM birds I say to > > Myself why didn,t they pull all the resources together to > launch > > One HEO. > > I guess I will have to keep dreaming that this might happen. > > The Dreamer > > Jerry w0sat > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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dreamer
by Jerry 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Hi : I guess you could say I miss AO-10 . RS birds AO-40 FO-20 . I could go on and on. When I see all the cube sats launched and FM birds I say to Myself why didn,t they pull all the resources together to launch One HEO. I guess I will have to keep dreaming that this might happen. The Dreamer Jerry w0sat

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CARE Launch from Wallops - Live Video
by Rich Dailey (Gmail) 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast/ Rich, N8UX.

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SwissCube Live Tracking website
by Trevor . 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

The SwissCube Live Tracking site is at http://swisscube-live.ch/ 73 Trevor M5AKA Daily Amateur Radio Email/RSS News: http://www.southgatearc.org/ ----

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Re: dreamer
by k0vty 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:19:59 -0400 Samudra Haque <samudra.haque(a)gmail.com> writes: > IF dreaming season is now open.. :-) If I may add to your maneuvering suggestion Samudra, -------------- I like to see a selection of deorbiting concepts tried. This to be done in a manner similar to previous satellites have been launched from the ISS. Maybe one launched every other day while the ISS is over head during a space walk so TLM and tracking beacons are available for info collection. As long as the LEO concept is in need of de orbiting and not the HEO bird it appears at the rate cube sats are being launched deorbiting will get very serious shortly. Dreamer Joe (K0VTY) -------------- > has any amateur satellite mission been conceived (and implemented) > where the satellite is permitted/designed for in-orbit maneuvering > with other spacecraft ? Simple example: Sat A, flies in formation > with > Sat B. Complex example: Sat A, changes orbit to rendezvous with Sat > B. > Could be useful to avoid debris and other spacecraft, or could be > very > useful in "joining" missions with additional tasks as Mission A Sat > A > performs operations on/with Mission B Sat B. > > concept: "operations" is flexible term: example: fix other > spacecraft. > > Since these "cubesats" or "microsats" are often launched in > clusters, > I would have thought this should be a common topic by now? Any URLs > that describe the maneuvering tasks in-orbit for any class of > amateur > spacecraft, please highlight them for education. > > Thanks, > > Samudra, N3RDX > > On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 3:07 PM, Jerry <W0SAT(a)msn.com> wrote: > > Hi : I guess you could say I miss AO-10 . RS birds > AO-40 > > > > FO-20 . > > > > I could go on and on. > > > > When I see all the cube sats launched and FM birds I > say to > > > > Myself why didn,t they pull all the resources > together to > > launch > > > > One HEO. > > > > I guess I will have to keep dreaming that this might > happen. > > > > The Dreamer > > > > Jerry w0sat > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the > author. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the > author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > ____________________________________________________________ Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTFoYcBKEal1aFJ97NmxqkXbF5…

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Re: Cubesat launch Sept. 23rd
by Wouter Jan Ubbels 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

Hi Bruce, yes, PSLV-C14 will carry ISIlaunch01, a cluster launch of four 1U CubeSats. For all frequency info, please refer to http://www.isispace.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=… and the websites of the satellite teams. Integration progress can be followed on: http://blog.isilaunch.com/ And of course, all help is appreciated in early operations tracking and assigning the correct TLE's to the different objects as soon as possible! We will try to keep everyone posted, more info will be posted as it becomes available. 73 on behalf of the ISIlaunch team, Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

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Cubesat launch Sept. 23rd
by Bruce Robertson 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

According to this report http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/13/stories/2009091360321100.htm PSLV-C14, which will carry cubesats, is to launch on 23rd of Sept. UWE 2 (A AX25 and CW downlink on 437.385 MHz) SwissCube 1 (A downlink frequency of 437.505MHz) BeeSat ( 70cm Transmit power: 0.5 W GMSK at 9600/4800 bits/s) ITU-pSat (radio info?) Bob mentioned KySat is going up pretty soon, too. Does anyone know if it will have the capability to be configured as a FM transponder as was planned a while back? 73, Bruce VE9QRP

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Re: Geosyro orbit.
by Ken Ernandes 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

The Earth is approximately 17.4-deg in diameter (8.7-deg radius) from Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). 73, Ken N2WWD -----Original Message----- >From: Joe <nss(a)mwt.net> >Sent: Sep 15, 2009 12:07 PM >To: BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> >Subject: [amsat-bb] Geosyro orbit. > >Hi All, > >I have a couple of questions, How big is the earth from a geosyncronous >(sp?) orbit. > >Like the Moon from Earth is roughly 1/2 a degree. > >What is the earth from a geo orbit? anyone know? > >Joe WB9SBD >_______________________________________________ >Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. >Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! >Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Geosyro orbit.
by Joe 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

Hi All, I have a couple of questions, How big is the earth from a geosyncronous (sp?) orbit. Like the Moon from Earth is roughly 1/2 a degree. What is the earth from a geo orbit? anyone know? Joe WB9SBD

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East Coast Launch tonight!
by Robert Bruninga 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

If skies are clear, look for a rocket launch from Wallops tonight between 7:30 to 7:57 PM. It should be visible over most of the mid-atlantic states. It is an optical tracking experiment, so will only launch if skies are clear. Alternate launch dates are clear nights from 16th through the 20th. The launch status can be followed on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NASA_Wallops This is not the one that will be deploying a CUBESAT built by Students in Kentucky. But it is a good exercise in preparation for that launch sometime in October. That future flight will contain 1200 baud packet telemetry on the national APRS freuency of 144.39 for maximum probability of detection. That mission will last 10 minutes as the rocket heads southeast to an altitude of 350km before returning to earth minutes later. People with beams are encouraged to point to Wallops on that future flight for maximum probability of getting all packets. Bob, Wb4APR

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