Zach, Good question. Part of the answer depends on your definitions of "working properly," and "quickly."
HO-68 and SO-67 have gone away quickly, that is within about a year of launch. By comparison, AO-51 was launched in 2004, with many years of service. AO-7 was dead for a couple of decades before returning to life, albeit with a bit of senility. FO-29 has periods of outages. AO-27, an FM bird launched almost 20 years ago, remains quirky in scheduling but popular. SO-50, 10 years old, also gets much use. When you look at them all, there isn't much correlation between the type satellite and lifetime. Issues such as the technology used, and the orbit, are much bigger issues. And as always, Murphy gets the last laugh. 73s, Alan WA4SCA -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of zach hillerson Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 9:49 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] satellite durability fm vs. linears Serious question regarding satellite durability. It seems with HO68, SO67, and now AO51, the FM satellites are quickly going away. It also seems that the older linear counterparts such as AO7, VO52 and FO29 all seem to continue working properly. Is there a design issue with the FM birds that limits the useful lifespan or is it purely random luck? Usage rates, etc... play a role? It seems to happen far too often (even with a small sample size) to be a fluke. Zach N4ERZ _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
