[amsat-bb] Only Half of the CubeSats Deployed into Space Work

[Gaston Bertels]

"Hobbyists" is correct, but often negatively connoted.

"Radio experimenters" describes what we do, be it DX-ing or building 
satellites.

Gaston ON4WF






------ Message d'origine ------
De : skristof at etczone.com
À : amsat-bb at amsat.org
Envoyé 17-06-16 13:28:26
Objet : Re: [amsat-bb] Only Half of the CubeSats Deployed into Space 
Work

>What is the problem with using the term "hobbyist"? Amateur radio is a
>hobby. Nothing wrong with that.
>
>A person may take his/her hobby so seriously that they neglect work,
>friends, and family, but if you're not getting paid for it, it's still 
>a
>hobby.
>
>Hobbyists can still do good work in their field of interest. Amateur
>astronomers (hobbyists) are making significant contributions to
>astronomical knowledge all the time.
>
>Check out hamsci.org to see how amateur radio hobbyists can help with
>ionospheric science.
>
>Steve AI9IN
>
>On 2016-06-17 04:01, Graham Shirville wrote:
>
>>  Hi Dan
>>
>>  Many thanks for the link. It certainly makes interesting reading...at 
>>the bottom of his database is a further link to his 2016 presentation 
>>https://sites.google.com/a/slu.edu/swartwout/swartwout_cubesat_workshop_20160420.pdf?attredirects=0 
>>that you mention.
>>
>>  Can we, collectively, come up with a better name than "Hobbyists" 
>>that he shows in slide 3?
>>
>>  73
>>
>>  Graham
>>  G3VZV
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: Daniel Schultz
>>  Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 2:55 AM
>>  To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
>>  Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Only Half of the CubeSats Deployed into Space 
>>Work
>>
>>  I just attended a talk on Tuesday by professor Michael Swartwout of 
>>Saint
>>  Louis University. He maintains a database of all known Cubesats at:
>>  https://sites.google.com/a/slu.edu/swartwout/home/cubesat-database
>>
>>  According to his most recent data, about 25% of recent Cubesats are 
>>dead on
>>  arrival in orbit, and another 12% fail early in the mission. 50% of 
>>Cubesats
>>  are classified as fully or partially successful. He attributes this 
>>mostly to
>>  inexperienced organizations building their first satellite with 
>>little
>>  understanding of the space environment and little or no environmental 
>>testing
>>  before launch. A certain amount of first timer "we know everything" 
>>arrogance
>>  also factors into that statistic. Satellites in space definitely 
>>don't work
>>  the same as satellites on the workbench. Many of these "one and done"
>>  organizations quit building satellites after their first failure, 
>>those
>>  organizations that launch multiple Cubesats have much better success 
>>rates.
>>  Experience does count for something.
>>
>>  Even for tiny little Cubesats, there is a set of "best practices" 
>>that you
>>  need to pay attention to when building your satellite. If it is your
>>  organization's first satellite, you need to be mindful of what you 
>>don't know
>>  and try to learn from the experience of others.
>>
>>  Slides from an earlier presentation by Professor Swartwout are at:
>>  
>>http://nepp.nasa.gov/workshops/eeesmallmissions/talks/11%20-%20THU/1300%20-%20swartwout%20eee%20201409%20v2.pdf
>>
>>  I expect that this year's presentation will be posted online in a few 
>>days.
>>
>>  Dan Schultz N8FGV
>>
>>  ------------Original Message------------
>>  Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2016 18:54:05 +0000 (UTC)
>>  From: M5AKA <m5aka at yahoo.co.uk>
>>  To: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
>>  Subject: [amsat-bb] "Only Half of the CubeSats Deployed into Space
>>  Work"
>>  Message-ID:
>>  <528856269.7643560.1466103245274.JavaMail.yahoo at mail.yahoo.com>
>>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>>
>>  ARRL story quotes NASA engineer Joe Pellegrino as saying "Only Half 
>>of the
>>  CubeSats Deployed into Space Work" - is the failure rate really that
>>  
>>high?http://www.arrl.org/news/view/stmsat-1-youngsters-told-only-half-of-the-cub
>>  esats-deployed-into-space-work
>>
>>  I've certainly noticed that a number of ISS deployed CubeSats using 
>>amateur
>>  frequencies which were subject to delays in the initial launch and 
>>then more
>>  delays before actual deployment have failed but it certainly didn't 
>>seem to
>>  be
>>  as high as 50%
>>
>>  But most ISS CubeSat deployments are not on amateur frequencies e.g. 
>>over 100
>>  Planet Labs Dove CubeSats have been deployed. Was the NASA engineer 
>>saying
>>  that
>>  half of Planet Labs satellites failed to work?
>>
>>  73 Trevor M5AKA
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>>  to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. 
>>Opinions expressed
>>  are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views 
>>of AMSAT-NA.
>>  Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite 
>>program!
>>  Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>>  to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. 
>>Opinions expressed
>>  are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views 
>>of AMSAT-NA.
>>  Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite 
>>program!
>>  Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>_______________________________________________
>Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. 
>Opinions expressed
>are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views 
>of AMSAT-NA.
>Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite 
>program!
>Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb