[amsat-bb] Re: A0 40 replacement

[Joe Fitzgerald]

On 9/4/2013 6:53 PM, tosca005 at umn.edu wrote:
> As long as AMSAT-NA needs to concentrate on 1U/3U/6U Cubesats for the 
> immediatee future, I would really like to see the pursuit of linear 
> transponders on them instead of single-channel FM repeaters. The way I 
> see it, launch opportunities are so rare that we ought to fly the most 
> capable equipment we can on those rare occasions when we can get a 
> launch.
>
>


We sure have linear transponders in the Fox pipeline.  Fox-1 has a lot 
of engineering work for basics like spacecraft structure, IHU, power and 
so on, so "simpler is better" is the guiding phrase for RF.  Later 
spacecraft in the Fox series will not need to repeat  the basic 
spacecraft work, so we can focus engineering efforts on fancier RF payloads.

-Joe