Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT-UK ANNOUNCE NEW SATELLITE TRANSPONDER PROJECT

[Steve Meuse <smeuse@xxxxxxxx>]

Graham Shirville expunged (g.shirville@btinternet.com):

> AMSAT-UK is delighted to be able to announce its participation in the SSETI 
> ESEO satellite project.
> 
> ESEO – The European Student Earth Orbiter is a satellite planned for launch 
> in late 2008 into a Geo-stationary transfer orbit similar to the initial 
> orbit of AO40 and to those planned for Eagle and P3E.

Wow, that's fantastic!


> The current project calls for a unit that can receive telecommands from 
> earth on UHF (435MHz), transfer those to the OBC via a CAN bus. 
> Additionally, it must transmit telemetry and mission data to the ground on 
> S-BAND (2.4GHz). We are planning to use omni-directional antenna systems so 
> the data rate will necessarily be quite low although output power will be 
> approx 9 watts.
> 
> system will use Nitrogen gas.  The 50kHz wide mode U/S transponder will be 
> switchable from a conventional linear design to a fully digital design based 
> on DSP techniques using the G6LVB STELLA firmware. Two UHF canted monopoles 
> on opposite ends of the spacecraft will be used to receive signals on U 
> band. The S Band output of 9 Watts will feed two turnstiles or quadrilifar 
> helixes. As well as the transponder, the unit will also provide 400 bps BPSK 
> telemetry in AO40 format.
> 
> Obviously we cannot expect the transponded signals on the ground to be as 
> strong as we enjoyed from AO40 but they should provide worldwide 
> communication similar to the earlier AO-13 project.

Is the gain difference between AO-40's S-band antenna and the two S-band turnstiles that great? It would seem that 9 watts would make up for some of that antenna gain.

Now, if we could just press the fast forward button and make it 2008!

Fantastic news!

-Steve
N1JFU
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