Ao40 was not too complex. I work in the space industry, I've already have my electronics fly to orbit (not AMSAT), it's awesome and scary all In one. Watching it launch not too long ago was gut wrenching, the entire system is complex but I trusted in my testing, I trusted my coworkers testing, and I trusted that we all worked to do the best we could, if it didn't work and we knew it wasn't from nativity... I'm fine with that, it's a learning experience. Anyone willing to operate in space must be willing to accept defeat.
we like to refer to space vehicles/missions as binary. It works or it doesn't, space is unforgiving and by forging into it you must accept failure as an outcome but do everything to avoid it. There's no shame in that. It can and will still happen. Only those willing to risk it achieve what was once thought impossible.
Having a clear path to get flight heritage on a common design is an obvious way of mitigating future risk.
Bryce Kb1lqc
On Saturday, July 26, 2014, Phil Karn karn@ka9q.net wrote:
On 07/22/2014 12:26 AM, Bryce Salmi wrote:
By usher in he was clearly referring to gaining technical abilities as a group to attack more complex satellites.
That's not how I read it. In any event, AMSAT has already built far more complex satellites; remember AO-40? (Maybe that one was *too* complex.)
Quite a few of the older and more experienced technical volunteers have simply drifted away from the organization due to a lack of interesting current projects.
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