[amsat-bb] Re: Amateur Satellites and the emergency on tornadoin Oklahoma and Texas

[Samudra Haque]

i8CVS Domenico, I found this news article showing satellite remote sensing
photos of the affected area:
http://nation.time.com/2013/05/23/before-and-after-the-tornado-satellite-shots-of-moore/?hpt=hp_bn18

The key issue is that this was taken with a space asset having a sensor
(imaging device) of a particular focal length and resolution that would
allow such images. Not all small satellites, or cubesats, have that
capability - but they can be developed and launched fairly quickly. The
bigger question is, can it be done with a GEO platform, as opposed to a
vastly more challenging LEO platform, in the time required for "damage"
assessment or "search and .." rescue, and "search and .." recover
operations, given that not all LEO spacecraft are  in the correct orbit
when they are required. And even if we assume a spacecraft had the ability
to change orbit, which only a select few have, the coordination of that
change may be impossible to arrange. ... that is, unless one were dealing
with a constellation (e.g., walker) of remote sensing platforms that could
be tasked with imaging from various orbital planes ... So the problem is
complex, and the answer, as always, unfortunately ... is ... "it depends".

That doesn't mean future missions will don't have a way. My own research
will produce affordable microthrusters for small satellites soon, which
will allow limited mobility if a program manager so desires, so ask me in a
few months. It would be great to hear from managers who have an idea of
what thruster performance levels they require (time/duration/delta
vee/mode) so we could investigate definition of  common requirements, at
George Washington University's Micropropulsion Lab.
https://www.mpnl.seas.gwu.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=16&Itemid=124;
Questions? Ask me directly.

And Domenico, thank you again for your help in past years in modeling sat
comm projects.


73 de N3RDX
Samudra
Washington, DC


On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 10:31 PM, Stefan Wagener <wageners at gmail.com> wrote:

> Nice!
>
> Point well made.
>
> Stefan, Ve4NSA
>
>
> On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 8:43 PM, JoAnne Maenpaa <k9jkm at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > > subject matter for a journal or symposium paper
> >
> > It's a bit dated now since I wrote it in 2008 for a Symposium paper
> > and it was reprinted in CQ VHF magazine ... I wrote a paper about
> > satellites in EMCOM:
> >
> > I still have a copy stashed at:
> > http://home.comcast.net/~k9jkm/CQVHF_Eagle_ACP_Emcomm.pdf
> >
> > This paper assumes a few things like we have an Eagle Phase IV GEO
> > satellite. It is written to tie multiple components of a national
> > level incident command system response up to being able to allow
> > several incidents to communicate with a unified command at a national
> > level. While the intrepid ham with HT and go=pack is key to local
> > emergency response a GEO satellite wasn't what was needed to call in
> > tornado reports within the county.
> >
> > Now Clayton can really sleep better after reading this! Probably fall
> > asleep reading it, but ahem, I digress ...
> >
> > --
> > 73 de JoAnne K9JKM
> > k9jkm at amsat.org
> >
> >
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