[amsat-bb] Re: Unused sats

[David - KG4ZLB]

All good points but forget the HEO's for now - we just need a good 
source of regularly launched easy sats in LEO to augment the few working 
birds we have and replace what we have to as they fall out of the sky or 
just stop working.

God forbid they all got hit by debris and all failed but if that 
happened, what would we do ? Still be harping on about AO-40 and whining 
on about getting another HEO up there!

It will happen (maybe not in my lifetime :-D ) but the LEO's must be 
maintained as that is where we get our source of newcomers from, the new 
AMSAT members who will not fork out the thick end of a large amount of 
wedge for an HEO that might or might not get up there!

Just my two rupees worth

-- 
David
KG4ZLB
www.kg4zlb.com




Howie wrote:
> While the opportunity to ride share on a GEO sat is probably our best chance
> at a HEO transponder, it is still a very slim chance in my opinion. I have
> worked in the commercial satellite industry for over 25 years and the most
> valuable piece of real estate in existence is located in the Clark Belt.
> Commercial satellites are very much a "for profit" business and every watt
> of power and ounce of weight has a dollar value beyond comprehension. Even
> if we offered to pay our share of weight and power, it would not be enough
> because the loss of return on investment for the non revenue generating
> "hitch hiker" must be factored in as well. I now work for a subsidiary of
> the second largest satellite operator in the world who is expanding their
> business to offer "hosted payloads" to customers who want to orbit
> specialized payloads without having to launch their own satellite. One of my
> co-workers was invited to participate in a meeting of the group working on
> this offering. When I found out, I suggested he bring up the idea of
> launching a very small amateur payload as a demonstration of the great
> utility that can be achieved with a very small, cost effective payload. He
> did and the response was "You mean for free ?" He was never invited back. If
> we want to get on a commercial sat, we need to have something to "sell",
> i.e. a good reason for them to orbit something that may help them generate
> revenues in the near future. I can say with reasonable confidence that an
> analog bent pipe transponder will not be very interesting. Something along
> the lines of the Advanced Communications Package might. Even though I was
> not a big fan, the P-25 over satellite might be another good one if we could
> prove a good scenario. If we want a ride into HEO, we need to earn it.
>
> Howie AB2S
>
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