Hold on. Not once did I ever suggest that ANY satellite was "easy to
build". I very much respect the effort, research, testing, etc. that
goes into every one, be it a flying repeater or not. My reference to
the term "easysats" comes from Clint or one of his ilk that seems
determined to show the rest of the amateur community how "easy" the FM
sats are to work. That's all well and good for them to do that too.
However, I was drawn to satellite work because of the challenge. I mean
call me weird or crazy but when something loses it's challenge and
becomes too easy, it begins to bore me pretty quickly.
73,
Michael, W4HIJ
On 2/14/2014 7:00 PM, Bryce Salmi wrote:
To expand upon the flying repeater email.
"I'd be interested to know if there is going to be any technical
challenge to working Fox 2 or if it will just be yet another ones of
Clint's Easysats."
Now, the actual important comment in this sentence is the reference
that Fox-1 being an FM bird is assumed to be easy to build. Strictly
and professionally speaking this is a huge understatement of the
technical challenges of any satellite. I'll assume you do not work in
the the aerospace industry or have volunteering to build one of the
AMSAT satellites (more than welcome to give it a shot!). Even an
easysat is incredibly hard to build. Beyond the actual transmission
mode the satellite must maintain a healthy power budget, provide
telemetry to monitor the status of the satellite, be implemented in a
95mmx95mmx95mm space (inside the cube), survive the 5 year mission's
expected 30krad dose of radiation, and survive 16 sunrises/sunsets per
day in the vacuum of space (have heat? can't use convection to get rid
it!). Just to name a few items...
To put the sunrise/sunset into perspective (think of the road and
other objects you see cracking due to expansion and contraction)
MIL-STD-1540 which is a good idea to follow and the associated
specifications usually require a spacecraft to be designed to survive
-34C to +71C temperature extremes. Try operating a consumer product in
that environment and it will fail pretty quickly.
Also, from an extremely high-level point of view, the only difference
between Fox-1 and Fox-2 will be the FM repeater being changed to the
Software Defined Transponder (SDX). The SDX is a bit more power hungry
so it requires an upgraded Maximum Power Point Tracker and more solar
cells to produce the needed power. Otherwise, Fox-2 and Fox-1 will
share a lot of the same technology. This is good because we don't want
to re-invent the wheel. Therefore I respectively reject the idea that
just because Fox-1 is an FM bird it is not technically challenging to
design and build.
Bryce
KB1LQC
On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 3:44 PM, Bryce Salmi <bstguitar...@gmail.com
<mailto:bstguitar...@gmail.com>> wrote:
You can already find out more about the prototype maximum power
point tracker that will be used to power the software defined
transponder on Fox-2!
http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/Home
Bryce
KB1LQC
On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Clayton Coleman
<kayakfis...@gmail.com <mailto:kayakfis...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Michael
You're in luck. The Phase 2 Fox series are based on the SDX
transponder as
tested on ARISSat-1 and not your favorite "flying repeaters."
Learn more by visiting the "Meet the Fox Project" page at:
http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=1113
Welcome aboard. You can join AMSAT and renew via the web
store or by
calling the office.
See http://store.amsat.org/catalog/ and click on "Membership"
for several
options.
73
Clayton
W5PFG
On Feb 14, 2014 4:04 PM, "Michael" <mat...@charter.net
<mailto:mat...@charter.net>> wrote:
> If Fox 2 is a linear bird, I'll even put my money where my
mouth is and
> renew my long dormant membership in AMSAT because I will
feel that they
> are moving in a direction that I and many others have
interest in. If it's
> just another flying repeater though well..... YAWN....I'm
getting sleepy
> now.
> 73,
> Michael, W4HIJ
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