I have been following the digital satellite discussion with great interest. Both sides have valid points.
I would like to pose a strictly engineering question. Keep in mind that I'm not an engineer but consider myself reasonably well read on the amateur satellite world.
A digital satellite would imply loads of processing power on the satellite. I would assume that with this additional activity that there will be more hardware on the bird with more complexity as this won't be a bent pipe system.
With more physical hardware of much more complexity in orbit what about the radiation hazards to this more complex and physical hardware heavier system? Wouldn't a software based system be prone to radiation induced hardware and software glitches? What about shielding etc?
Dave Marthouse N2AAM [email protected]