[amsat-bb] Re: Increasing range from LEO.

[John B. Stephensen]

To get good coverage you need as many LEO satellites as possible so they should each be as small as possible. Intersatellite linking could be done via automated ground stations. This eliminates the need for high-power transmtters and/or high-gain antennas on the satellites for interlinkng. It's better to put that gain and power consumption on earth. Eveything on the satellite costs more than its weight in gold as launch costs are $700 per ounce.

73,

John
KD6OZH 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: G0MRF at aol.com 
  To: kd6ozh at comcast.net ; amsat-bb at AMSAT.Org 
  Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 18:16 UTC
  Subject: Increasing range from LEO.


  In a message dated 03/09/2009 08:09:09 GMT Standard Time, kd6ozh at comcast.net writes:
    P3E is a HEO with the same engine as P3D and no benefactor funding a launch. 
    It seems more reasonable to focus on projects that we can pay to launch or 
    where someone has already donated the launch.

    73,

    John
    KD6OZH
  Wacky idea No 357

  Perhaps a longer term piece of AMSAT research could be to develop a subsystem for LEO satellites that detects and then connects users between passing LEOs. This would allow short term intersatellite communication.  Very tricky, but a nice project where boards are made available to anyone who would like to add this facility to their LEO Sat.

  Thanks

  David