[amsat-bb] Re: Bill Ress - N6GHz - Board Candidate - OperatingSurvey

[John Franke]

One issue that arose in earlier talks with commercial satellite providers 
was the fact that the Earth facing side of the satellite was covered with 
commercial antennas.  There was scant little area left to place a 
significant sized Earth facing amateur radio antenna.

John  WA4WDL


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee McLamb" <ku4os at cfl.rr.com>
To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 9:10 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Bill Ress - N6GHz - Board Candidate - 
OperatingSurvey


> On Tuesday 22 July 2008 08:11:56 Andrew Glasbrenner wrote:
>> Some replies to Ed's comments:
>> > The Intelsat should be much less expensive:
>> > 1-free ride
>> > 2-free power
>> > 3-free stabilization
>>
>> Let me clarify this some. It is -not- a free ride. Intelsat will charge 
>> us
>> for the loss of operational time for every kg of stationkeeping fuel they
>> offload to accomondate our extra mass. There may be some recurring 
>> expenses
>> as well.
>
> Actually one of the things that makes an Intelsat rideshare more 
> affordable
> now is that because the launch vehicles have gotten bigger, they typically
> would not have to offload any fuel due to our small mass increase. 
> However,
> the increase in mass does increase their consumption rate of station 
> keeping
> fuel.  The resulting reduced operating life expectancy is certainly part 
> of
> the equation that they will include in quoting prices.
>
> 73,
> Lee-KU4OS
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at 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
>