Interesting stuff Alex. I'm currently working on an FM satellite station as that's all I can afford at present but I hope some of the NextGen birds will carry linear transponders too. At any rate, it all sounds very exciting. 73, Michael W4HIJ Alex, N3SQ wrote: > For those following what was announced at the AMSAT Symposium, there are > two different ways AMSAT is working with the Universities: > (a) AMSAT-NA helps a University Satellite Program: This is the case with > UCF, AMSAT volunteers are helping a University with their satellites. > (b) A University helps the AMSAT-NA Satellite Program: This is the case > with Binghamton University, BU Students are helping build & launch AMSAT > satellites. > > The two ways are not mutually exclusive, each has benefits. > > The BU activity was organized to help get AMSAT back on it's engineering > feet and to provide continuing assistance. We're doing that by providing > engineering assistance and manpower to help AMSAT launch more modular > design satellites ASAP. We're at 35 students right now, that number can > grow significantly next fall at AMSAT's direction. Our goal is to get an > Engineering model of the NextGen satellite bus ready for the AMSAT booth > at the Dayton Hamvention in May 2010. Engineering model says we have the > modified spaceframe with deployable wings ready, power system ready > (with mock supercaps & solar cells) and the non-flight boards installed > - basically stuffed 'n mounted on a stand for your viewing. > > NextGen is an open-source spacecraft bus, it will provide a stable & > robust platform for any university to build an experiment to fit within > the bus. > I would personally advocate AMSAT launching up to two or three of the > NextGen-class spacecraft in different 600-800km, sun-synchronous orbits > to provide as much worldwide coverage as possible. Given the proposed > characteristics of the NextGen spacecraft bus, there is a strong > possibility of carrying an IF Matrix Switch with L/S RF capability > instead of an experiment payload. This would provide capabilities > similar to AO-51 (V/U, V/S, L/U, L/S) but using SDX with an IF Matrix > Switch. > > By using Supercapacitors instead of batteries there is a very good > chance of having a significant satellite lifespan (15+ years). > > All technology developed can be applied to other classes of AMSAT > spacecraft, just as NextGen is using modules from the ARISSat-class > spacecraft. I would expect that ARISSat-2 will most likely take > advantage of the power system modifications developed for NextGen. > > The possibilities are endless, all it takes are more people interested > in working on a module. > > Alex, N3NP > > > _______________________________________________ >
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