Just dreaming-It's the year 2035 and 90 year old W7LRD, heard AO-40 for the first time in over thirty years. Using very antique equipment, that was not controled by mental telepathy. 73 Bob
-- "if this were easy, everyone would be doing it"
-------------- Original message -------------- From: "Don Ferguson" kd6ire@sbcglobal.net
Auke de Jong,
I believe AO-40 was designed by AMSAT to not allow both sets of batteries to be disconnected. We should have learned with AO-7 that every satellite should be able to work on solar power alone as eventually all batteries will fail. It is my understanding that the only chance we have is if the batteries burn open some day in the future.
Someone else my be able to correct my understanding if I have misunderstood the AO-40 design. Hopefully those who designed the power system have moved on and we now have some better insight.
Don -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Auke de Jong, VE6PWN Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 7:53 PM To: AMSAT-BB Subject: [amsat-bb] recent AO-40 efforts?
I noticed that during the last period of documented efforts to recover AO-40 4 years ago, there were promising results about hearing faint signals. By my interpretation of those old reports, they basically confirmed that the command receiver was working but could not get much else done with it. Now that it has been officially silent for several years, has anyone tried to send commands to it in order to disconnect the (shorted) battery banks via the relays onboard? Given the changing sun-angles on the arrays and the passage of time, as well as possible heating of certain onboard components due to the constant supply of solar power to the shorted batteries, could there be any possibility of (energizing) the battery-disconnect relays? I presum e that they are in a fail-close arrangement, because if they were fail-open, they should have already done-so due to the shunted power system. Also, could the solar panels have fuses that have opened? could such fuses be re-settable?
I would be interested to hear what knowledge there exists about the present status of AO-40, especially what "google" couldn't fetch.
Auke de Jong VE6PWN DO33go Edmonton, AB
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
Interesting the speculation, this spacecraft suffered an onboard explosion that rendered several transponders inopperative. Was it a short or an open? leaky batteries and corossion, who knows? many efforts were made to resume contact and all failed. Everyone of us wishes it would return, but the chance of that happening is well beyound the point of diminishing returns. If someone has time to listen lets not discourage them , but offer no encouragement either. Their efforts might be better spent on SETTI. Art, KC6UQH ----- Original Message ----- From: w7lrd@comcast.net To: kd6ire@sbcglobal.net; AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 1:10 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: recent AO-40 efforts?
Just dreaming-It's the year 2035 and 90 year old W7LRD, heard AO-40 for the first time in over thirty years. Using very antique equipment, that was not controled by mental telepathy. 73 Bob
-- "if this were easy, everyone would be doing it"
-------------- Original message -------------- From: "Don Ferguson" kd6ire@sbcglobal.net
Auke de Jong,
I believe AO-40 was designed by AMSAT to not allow both sets of batteries to be disconnected. We should have learned with AO-7 that every satellite should be able to work on solar power alone as eventually all batteries will fail. It is my understanding that the only chance we have is if the batteries burn open some day in the future.
Someone else my be able to correct my understanding if I have misunderstood the AO-40 design. Hopefully those who designed the power system have moved on and we now have some better insight.
Don -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Auke de Jong, VE6PWN Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 7:53 PM To: AMSAT-BB Subject: [amsat-bb] recent AO-40 efforts?
I noticed that during the last period of documented efforts to recover AO-40 4 years ago, there were promising results about hearing faint signals. By my interpretation of those old reports, they basically confirmed that the command receiver was working but could not get much else done with it. Now that it has been officially silent for several years, has anyone tried to send commands to it in order to disconnect the (shorted) battery banks via the relays onboard? Given the changing sun-angles on the arrays and the passage of time, as well as possible heating of certain onboard components due to the constant supply of solar power to the shorted batteries, could there be any possibility of (energizing) the battery-disconnect relays? I presum e that they are in a fail-close arrangement, because if they were fail-open, they should have already done-so due to the shunted power system. Also, could the solar panels have fuses that have opened? could such fuses be re-settable?
I would be interested to hear what knowledge there exists about the present status of AO-40, especially what "google" couldn't fetch.
Auke de Jong VE6PWN DO33go Edmonton, AB
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
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
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