O3B had to buy the capacity of two GTO capable rockets to get to their custom orbit of 8,000 km, don't know what that costs these days but I don't reckon you'll get much change out $100 million. The cheaper approach might to go to a 600 km orbit and use an onboard electrical propulsion system to steadily increase the apogee over 2 or 3 years - but unfortunately no-one has achieved that yet.
But yes 8,000 km would be a great orbit for amateur satellites and if it used the 29 and 50 MHz bands you'd hardly notice the Doppler.
73 Trevor M5AKA
On Monday, 22 December 2014, 20:02, Jerry Buxton [email protected] wrote:
Could anyone get pricing for this, please?
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
On 12/22/2014 08:37, David G0MRF wrote:
Hi
Did anyone see the Soyuz launch from Arianespace a few days ago and think how nice it would be to have an amateur radio satellite somewhere above LEO ?
Interestingly, the launch of 3 communication satellites providing internet services to remote areas, was to an altitude around 8000km. - An unusual destination. Apparently the 'latency' or time delay on signals from 36,000km is too high for an internet service, whereas the number of satellites needed for a constellation at LEO is too many.
The company O3B (Other 3 Billion) decided that MEO at 8000km which is between the 2 Van Allen belts answered their needs.
http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/12/18/soyuzo3b-launch-timeline/
For the launch, the satellites were mounted on a cylindrical launch adaptor, (see pics in link) the inner part of which looks an ideal place for a 3U cubesat secondary payload.
Wouldn't it be nice to get something up to that altitude with Omni antennas, or a gravity gradient boom with a simple beam and about 4 Watts output ! A leisurely 5 orbits a day with Paris to California routine......... http://g0mrf.com/MEOSAT.htm
Oh well, back to dreaming of a white Christmas
Seasons greetings
David G0MRF
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_______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb