We offer that anyone willing can develop and submit fortesting and qualification a stand-alone L/S transponder to fly in one of the TSFR slots, using fixed antennas. It would be usable at/near Apogee, like the microwave packages on AO-13 and A)-40. What do you think? Les's discuss this.
Bad idea. We discussed having ONE SDX transponder and ONE digital communications payload. If for some reason it is decided that the DCP is on neither S1 nor L (which itself would be a bad idea...), AND it was decided that there was a desire for old-style transponders on L/S, then it makes sense to build it as part of the SDX, and not have a THIRD payload.
Like Matt, I am not in favor of this. We need to design the system for services, not design the spacecraft as a bus for a collection of modules.
I recall two SDX payloads, but I'm old and my memory is failing. The Eagle block diagram from Oct 2005 shows a pair of SDX modules, and the SDX block diagram shows a U and an L uplink, an S1 and a V downlink. Of course, at that time the digital payload was to be C/C.
Did we decide to kill the L uplink for SDX/analog use in San Diego? I recall that we decided to not use an L uplink for the digital system.
73,
Lyle KK7P