This is an intriguing possibility and perplexes me somewhat they (AMSAT) hasn't mentioned it, or something similar. For instance, every launch has a ballast load. Why is it that the ballast cannot be replaced with a cubesat? Why aren't commercial sats required to have a amateur band transceiver installed, as mentioned here and elsewhere, to activate when the primary mission ceases? Public utility companies and regulated companies such as AT&T help us routinely.
Of course the easy answer is 'no', but a thoughtful consideration from the people who deal with this on a daily basis might be more nuanced. It's not a technical issue, is it?
Moreover, rigging a series of sats with a transmission system that switches on in the event of catastrophic failure or switching off of the main system offers the possibility of establishing a sat network capable of vast distance datacom at no expense to the primary carrier and of great benefit to the general public and science.
Isn't it time we move to working on a deep space internet system that the commercial folks don't want to spend a lot of money on, and that we (ham folks) can help by proving-in the concept? Seems to me we can do this without a lot of expense but with the foresighted help of the commercial folks.
Dave
DM78qd // KA0SWT
If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners.-- Johnny Carson
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-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of STeve Andre' Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:21 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: NASA Kills Ulysses
About the only thing we could do is use them as training guides for receiving weak signals. Satellities are not designed to qsy, or do anything other than they actual function(s), specified long before they were ever built. Add more to a bird increases complexity, and also failures.
I'll bet they turned it off to free up that frequency for something else. If that is the case then we can't even really try monitoring.
I've often wondered about the ham community using old systems but except for really rare cases, they are just too specific to do anything for us.
--STeve Andre' wb8wsf en82
On Wednesday 01 July 2009 12:13:19 w7lrd@comcast.net wrote:
I often wonder, is it is not possible to configure any of these "non-functioning" satellites to suit our needs? I mean we can do an awfull lot with very little. There are alot of "non-functioning" satellites up there. We are a creative bunch and enjoy the challange.
73 Bob W7LRD
Seattle
---- Original Message ----- From: "Clint Bradford" clintbrad4d@earthlink.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 9:00:01 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [amsat-bb] NASA Kills Ulysses
After 18 years of operation, NASA has switched off Ulysses, the space probe designed to study the properties of solar wind, the heliosphere magnetic field, and the solar radio bursts that can greatly affect our gadgets, telecommunications, and every electronic system here on planet Earth. It was the first object to see and study our Sun's poles.
Read Ulysses Mission Operations Manager Nigel's email message to the Ulysses community ...
Clint Bradford, K6LCS 909-241-7666
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