[amsat-bb] Sumbandila

["Pieter Kotze" <pkotze@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all
 
Intended orbit is around 500km to meet the imaging payload requirements.  At this altitude and with the limited propulsion on board, 3 years is a good estimate of the satellite lifetime due to re-entry.   No reason why the electronics should not last much longer than this.
The Soyuz Fregat will return to a lower altitude to drop Sumbandila off after the main payload has been released.
 
73
Pieter

>Gunter's Space Page lists the primary payload, Meteor-M 1, as going into an 830 km orbit. 

>I'm guessing SumbandilaSat will end up in a similar orbit as I'm not aware that the >launcher in question is capable of doing multi-drop of the payloads into different orbits. 

>SumbandilaSat was originally scheduled to be launched from a submarine platform, this >may be the source of the 500 km figure quoted, but the launch vehicle changed. 

>Unfortunately I've no definative information on SumbandilaSat's intended orbit. 

>Quoted design lifetimes are usually meaningless. For experimental systems it just means >the time required to complete the primary experiment. For many satellites it's quoted as 3 >or 6 months, but systems may continue to operate for many years after the primary >objective has been completed. 

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