I am resigned to the fact we will in all probability never see another AO-40 (sobsob) unless one of us wins the lottery. We would call it the LRD bird (if I won). As far as putting one together on the ISS, we would have to send a "real" ham to the ISS., to put it together. Remember they busted a antenna on the last one. The best chance is from our DL friends with the AO-10/13 type frame. Untill then we will have to be content with what we have and when we have it. We can play around with interesting propulsion systems etc. I realize we have smart people in high places within various organizations, and trusting them is necessary. Finally if a HEO is ever on the horizon (pun intended), they will come in droves. 73 Bob W7LRD
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Spasojevich" johnag9d@gmail.com To: "Trevor ." m5aka@yahoo.co.uk Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 9:40:09 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO40 replacement !!!
How would it be assembled on ISS? You would have to build it on the ground, document every step, take it apart and rebuild it to be sure the assembly documentation is correct and then ship it up bit by bit. Meanwhile each crew trains quite awhile on their respective increments aboard before they launch. So, you would have to hope you train the right crew to assemble it which means your upmass bits and pieces would have to make every launch they are scheduled for. Being a ham radio satellite what do you think the priority is should something more pressing come along? There goes your trained crew, remember the broken antenna on ARISSat-1? The crew that deployed it was not the crew that had been trained on the ground for that deployment. Assembly of anything even remotely close to AO-40 aboard ISS is unrealistic. The best chance of getting a so called replacement for AO40 is to find a way to complete and launch P3D which is sitting on the ground in Germany. Maybe they'd like to disassemble it, document it and work shipping it to ISS via ESA?
John - AG9D
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 10:48 AM, Trevor . m5aka@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
--- On Wed, 5/9/12, Kevin Muenzler kevin@eaglecreekobservatory.org wrote:
It would be difficult to get some sort of rocket aboard the ISS now that the space shuttle missions are finished
I doubt it was ever feasible, if I understand it correctly there are even issues with shipping rechargable batteries up there let alone a rocket.
Also with regards to ISS bear in mind buying astronauts time to do anything would cost a fortune. They are employed by their respective organizations to work up there.
Getting CubeSat's to MEO or HEO will depend on developing propulsion, fold-out solar panels, and even CubeSat directional antennas - I wonder could a 2m 2 ele Yagi be incorporated into a 3U CubeSat ?
73 Trevor M5AKA
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