Re: [amsat-bb] Special Bulletin ANS-063.02 BOD Meeting

[Jon Ogden <na9d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think the question also needs to be answered of "why" we are going to use
such a launch.  Is it ideal for an AMSAT bird?  Absolutely not.  A much more
suitable elevation could be obtained if we launched from a more northerly
lattidue.  In fact, I think my father-in-law's farm in eastern Iowa would
work! :-)

Sadly, though, there is not much demand for commercial satellites with
highly elevated highly elliptical orbits.  At least not enough to make such
a launch site worthwhile.  There is some demand for LEO sats with highly
elevated (polar) orbits, but those are launched on much smaller rockets that
don't provide the necessary umph to get a satellite to GTO.  Now you don't
necessarily need a special launch site in a higher latitude to get the
higher elevation, but who will pay for the cost of such a launch?

We get a good deal by piggy-backing on commercial flights.  If AMSAT had to
pay for their own flight to put it in whatever orbit we wanted, the costs
would be prohibitive from having any satellites in orbit.  We get what we
have precisely because others with big money pay the majority of the cost.

The simplest satellites are ones w/o propulsion systems.  The best orbits
are ones that have high altitude and high elevation.  But given the
constraints of a simple bird w/o propulsion you have to pick one or the
other.

73,

Jon
NA9D



on 3/13/01 2:44 AM, John Stephensen, KD6OZH at kd6ozh@gte.net wrote:

> The GTO (geostationary transfer orbit) is designed to minimize the energy
> required for the individual payloads to acheive geostationary orbit. That
> requires an inclination as close to 0 as possible.
> 
> The most commonly used orbits for commercial satellites are low near polar
> orbits in the 200 to 800 km range and geosynchronous orbits at around 40,000
> km and 0 dgrees inclination.  GTO is the only available route for any
> satellite that provides intercontinental communication. Changing the
> inclination requires an onboard rocket engine that at least doubles the mass
> and therefore doubles the cost of the launch.
> 
> 73,
> 
> John
> KD6OZH
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph V Murray" <k0vty@juno.com>
> To: <kd6ozh@amsat.org>; <amsat-bb@amsat.org>
> Sent: Thursday, 08 March 2001 16:11 UTC
> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Special Bulletin ANS-063.02 BOD Meeting
> 
> 
>> Is the assumption that a GTO insertion launch is always followed by a GEO
>> stationary positioning or why if no stationary positioning does the
>> launch inclination have to be close to zero ??    I am trying to
>> understand the statement that we will use a GEO launch with no follow on
>> orbital information by AMSAT.
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> Joe K0VTY
>> ===============
>> 
>> On Thu, 8 Mar 2001 03:34:00 -0000 "John Stephensen, KD6OZH"
>> <kd6ozh@gte.net> writes:
>>> The inclination is close to zero degrees for all GTOs.
>>> 
>>> John
>>> KD6OZH
>>> 
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Joseph V Murray" <k0vty@juno.com>
>>> To: <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, 08 March 2001 02:35 UTC
>>> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Special Bulletin ANS-063.02 BOD Meeting
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> GTO is one consideration.    What is the inclination of the launch.
>>>> 
>>>> Joe K0VTY
>>>> =================
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
NA9D (ex: KE9NA)

Member:  ARRL, AMSAT, DXCC, NRA

http://www.qsl.net/ke9na

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

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