Huston We Have A Problem! - SuitSat is Dead

Diurnal refers to the length of day. The diurnal period for Venus, for example, is not 24 hours.

It does not always refer to a 'day' on th surface of the Earth, although that is the most common usage.

 

I hope some of these guys will focus their indignation to something positive and take your example.

Getting a ham project /802.11 balloon up 100,000 feet(!) is a very big deal and worth celebrating.

If you want, I'll see if I can get you a free antenna this summer.

73,
Chip N1IR

 

The universe has no center.

That is a fact.

Get knowledgable, man!

 

I copied it 1x2/2x2 this morning (FN21). I also noticed while listening on SSB that there is variable doppeler shift happening...I'll bet that the suit is slowly spinning...and that the batteries are freezing and thawing...

I wonder where this '$2 million suit' comes from...a used Orlan-M suit can be had for 149k euros...

 

Hail to the Rocket Scientists ... wouldn't you think one of them would have considered this very elementary issue?

 

Let me state first I have no connection to AMSAT, I am not a particle engineer, nor do I profess to have knowlege of the workings of the College of Cardinals.

That said, SuitSat was a qualified sucess.

It got people's attention (500+ media hits); it truly cost very little, since everything was garbage or going to be garbage; and was thought out and executed on a shoestring budget with minimal planning time.

Could they have kept the batteries warmer? Probably--but at what cost.  Either your shorten the transmit time by running a heater off the same batteries; you install more batteries for the heater and loose some of your spares (Plus I doubt those were fresh batteries anyway); and while your already draining energy stores for heat, why not put a gyro stablizer on the thing to keep the antenna pointed at certain QTHs to keep the naysayers happy.

Take heart in the exposure we gained from this  EXPERIMENT.  If another is done, I'm sure there will be any number of things done differently.  But, at the rate this discussion is going, I wouldn't blame AMSAT if they just said to bring the old suits home or continue to jettison them to burn up, just like Ivan Ivanovich will soon.

 

Damn, they should have used "Proven Technology"

A Drake UV-3 (with the remote head kit) and a Sears DIEHARD car battery would surely still be operating.

Heck, the UV-3 might have survived re-entry.

WA6JFK

 

SuitSat Just Heard here in the U.K

Perhaps the Moderators would Consider Removing this thread from the Home page as News!

With this thread appearing in the Home page News
It may come across to some people as an Official Announcement?

With that being said it is Incorrect and misinformed News information.

Just in case someone is not sure as to the Status of SuitSat Click on this link
http://www.suitsat.org/results.cgi

Given that this is a World wide Amateur website, I am sure that Qrz.com would Not want to give the Wrong Information to Amateurs around the World on such an Important topic?

 

My sentiments entirely.

This was a stupid idea with a predictable ending. I only wonder where all the posters from the “we learned a lesson from this experiment” bent have been for the past half century of technical discoveries.

Some other “lessons”you may take note of: When camping in the mountains, bring a jacket. When flying to the sun, go at night when it’s not so hot

 

I don't know that this "experiment" was good or bad, but there was a really nice mention of it on ABC radio network news when it was launched (or jettisoned?), including the fact that ham radio operators around the world would be listening for it. Some good, non-disaster-related PR about our hobby.

It was one of the more positive news items that day. If we want to get agitated about something related to politics, taxes, or international relations, there are certainly many more threatening issues that we could choose from ... IMHO.

Cheers,

Terry KV7X

 

Hey this was a great Idea. Give the guy a break. I read in the paper the other day that is was still ALIVE!.. Believe that one.

 

At least we got some PR and not have to hear our President...lol

 

The universe began with the Big Bang, which was an expansion of all matter and energy from a single point. Given that everything expanded away from that point, that point would most definitely be the center of the universe.

Given gravitational effects on the galaxies during the 14-15 billion years of expansion, it may be extremely difficult to reverse engineer the expansion to determine where the center was located, but that doesn't mean there is no center. This has always been an interest of mine, to answer this question.

So with this goal in mind I constructed a 1.5 trillion line program written in C# to accept the current velocity and direction of all matter in the universe relative to all matter in the universe and then calculate the location of the center. It took a few hours to run, but the program just displayed a pop-up with the result.... "42".

Huh? Jeez, there must be a bug. Oh well, back to the code editor.

 

My friend,

Your understanding on this is incomplete.

The universe, has, had, and will have--no center.

I am sure some of the eager students who have been following Suitsat can fill you in.

73,
Chip N1IR

 

Terry,

That's good stuff. The problem is that some very vocal hams are calling this fiasco a success. That loses MAJOR credibility for the amateur radio service in the public's eye.

And when someone comes on here to correct them--and gets bashed--that looks even worse.

73,
Chip N1IR