situation is not what anyone wanted hear.
I will echo John's statement. For those who have worked so hard on this
would not have anything to enjoy.
Post by Fred CastelloPost by Fred CastelloI am just curious why we are not discussing the apparent failure of the
receiver of AO-95. Do we know anything more about the issue?
Post by Fred CastelloThanks all,
Fred – KF4FC
Hi Fred,
I'm not sure if you were referring to We the amsat-bb list members? I
have to say that I figured there would be much more chatter here than I
have seen so far, anyway.
If by We you mean We the AMSAT Engineering team, of course we have been
discussing the problem, possible causes, and working on leads ever since
the anomaly became known. Certainly many of us are unhappy at not
succeeding in making everybody else happy, but that is not the reason
for my silence in terms of sharing with the public. Right now, with no
readily apparent reason or reasons for the behavior, there is nothing
else to report.
The situation has gone from a commissioning to being challenge, which is
actually fun and we're on it. We are looking at data from a number of
sources, as well as our past experiences with the other Fox-1 satellites
during their journey from the BOM to orbit. Ideas such as the one Drew
mentioned about employing a mega-QRO station to see if it can be heard
by the bird have been on the table for several days but I don't plan to
report or discuss every thought we have in working this unless and until
it is something of merit or actionable. As you probably know, our
resources are limited and it's all volunteered time. Most if not all of
our remaining Fox-1 engineers are also involved in the GOLF-TEE project
so I have asked them to give that first priority with their available
volunteer time in order to keep the schedule. AO-95 is in orbit now and
we can vary the amount of attention on her as resources allow in order
to achieve both goals. If the results of our investigation point to a
possibility of recovery be it partial, full, or some workaround method,
we would all like to see her working as much as the rest of you and that
is a driver for this investigation. But perhaps the most important
driver is that there are lessons to be learned for the betterment of
future missions. I expect us to continue to look for the cause or
causes until we have results or reach a dead end because of the
inability to take the lid off and look inside AO-95.
The main point of the ANS is to let everyone know that commissioning
won't be happening, certainly not in the period that everyone has grown
accustomed to if at all, so that members and users can get on with
enjoying their activities on all of the other satellites. Many had been
waiting in anticipation and wondering why talk of AO-95 commissioning
seemed so quiet, so once we were sure that it didn't appear to be an
intermittent thing we shared the news. And as I said in the ANS, I will
certainly be keeping everyone posted when we have something new to
report so in the meantime please carry on and enjoy the birds!
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
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