Well my point exactly. Somebody a while back jokingly put the concept out to tape 2 woxoun ht's together, mount 2 antennas on some solar panels and throw the thing out the window ...
I mean just think about it for a second: : take a 2 U cubesat frame, put the guts of 2 HT's in there, together with a battery and some charging electronics, mount antennas and of you go ? Do we really _need_ remote command capability ? Or telemetry and all the software ? Onboard scheduling ? Or would a simple homebrew-repeater-in-space do ? I think the only intelligence you really need is
in the battery charger. Ok, it might become unpredictable if and when the thing is switched on, based on low battery levels .. so what ? If its there I work it, otherwise I wait for the next pass. Just make sure it is smart enough to bridge batteries with a short.
I mean the concepts of Fox & friends and great. But I think we are at the 'less is more' point. I think many of us would prefer a simple-and-dirty fm repeating sat which is actually flying, rather then all the great plans and concepts which take years and many many dollars to complete. ARISSAT was great, that the antenna was missing not our fault. Cant we put another ARISSAT in cubesat format together rather quickly, instead of re-inventing the wheel over and over again ? Its a bit like letting a kid starve to death because you don't have the resources to cook a gourmet meal. Guess what, a simple ham-and-cheese sandwich will do.
Andreas - VK4HHH
________________________________ From: Thomas Doyle tomdoyle1948@gmail.com To: Andy Kellner hawat1@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, 9 December 2011 1:25 AM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] 9 cubesats on board Vega
How many cubesats does the Amateur Radio community have ready for launch - not talking, planning or thinking about about building but actually ready to go ?
73 W9KE tom ...
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 8:28 AM, Andy Kellner hawat1@yahoo.com wrote:
I'll be darned. 9 (nine!) cubesats on board of this launch vehicle and the whole world wide amateur radio community has major problems finding somebody to launch 1 every 5 years ?
Whats wrong with this picture ? I would like to find out why ESA for example has no problems launching the cubesats by the dozend (for free i bet you), but refuse to carry just one for us. Does somebody has ESA's email address ? :) Is it really all about the educational aspect of things ? We can use that sales pitch, too.
Andreas - VK4HHH
From: Trevor . m5aka@yahoo.co.uk To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, 8 December 2011 9:56 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: LARES To Test Einstein's Theory
--- On Thu, 8/12/11, Bob- W7LRD w7lrd@comcast.net wrote:
can't we squeeze a little bird in there?
They'll be some CubeSat's on the launch I believe going into a 1500 by 300 km orbit see
http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Education/SEM3N03MDAF_0.html
73 Trevor M5AKA
Sent via AMSAT-BB@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@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