[amsat-bb] Re: old satellites

[Hans Johnson]

Furthermore, from what I understand, international agreements (or at least
implicit agreements) now require the operators to vent any remaining fuel.
This is to prevent the satellite from exploding at some point in the future
due to either the (rather caustic) fuel corroding through the fuel tank, or
a debris/micrometeorite hit.

Once this is complete, the operators will then permanently shut down the
satellite so that there is no chance of it interfering with the operational
fleet.  The last thing they want is a semi-active satellite drifting past an
operational satellite (at least from the POV of the earth station) and
potentially confusing tracking antennas, or otherwise interfering with
revenue traffic.

As far as shifting them to amateur frequencies, I doubt it's physically
possible.  In order to get the Tx/Rx isolation they need, the satellites
will be using cavity filters, so unless you're very close to their passband,
there's no hope.  Heck, in my day job, we have to use different filters if
we want to operate in extended ku-band filters.

Regards,

Hans Johnson
VA7HAS

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Wayne Estes <w9ae at charter.net> wrote:

> There is no reason to stabilize a satellite after it is boosted to the
> graveyard orbit.  The satellite might have power and be easy to track,
> but the antennas won't point towards earth very often.
>
> Wayne Estes W9AE
> Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik
>
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-- 
---------------------------------------------
Hans Johnson (hans.johnson at gmail.com)
B.ASc, Computer Engineering
Simon Fraser University

... Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes. -- Anonymous