On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 12:38:39PM -0700, Gary wrote: > > Keith Lofstrom wrote: > > So the question is, given physical and economic constraints, how > > can we design the orbiting system to match the community system > > even better? I hope we can explore that at the monthly. > > > > This may sound like an odd question but how do amateur satellite > hobbyists currently get launch clearance for their projects? Is it wrong > to assume that space is somewhat like international waters go as far as > jurisdiction goes do all space faring nations have a say in what goes > where? Who says what can be put in LEO, MEO, or GEO? U.S. Strategic > Command is already tracking over 8000 objects in low earth orbit so I'm > sure several parties will notice if you launch something from U.S. soil > in to space. Couldn't you get in serious trouble without clearing > something like this with the authorities? And I haven't even brought up > the question of what individuals can do to minimize the chances of a > Kessler Syndrome...? The cost of entry in this kind of hobby must be > high but what if it becomes affordable some day for every grade school > to launch their own satellite? Personally, I think that we be pretty > damn cool so I'm not trying to be a wet towel. I'm just curious.
Great questions. The organization in charge of satellite communication and orbit assignment is the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector, ITU-R . The AMSAT folk deal with them. AMSAT satellites are generally spring-deployed "ballast" attached to launch systems instead of dead weight, to balance larger satellites. They've launched about 60 satellites this way. Don Kessler predicted that at some point, uncontrolled space objects would smash into other objects, creating more debris, more collisions, and eventually a ring of lethal gravel in orbit. This is a slow process, with an exponential growth time measured in years, but is inexorable. If a pond has a single organism in it, which doubles every day, and doubles for 39 days to fill half the pond, how long will it take to fill it? The answer is one more day. The Kessler Syndrome is like that. The trick is to capture the stuff and do something useful with it, or deorbit it, rather than let it bang around forever. I've got friends working on that. Whether they get funding to fix the problem before it gets too expensive is the big question. It gets more expensive with the same exponential growth time, and becomes too expensive before the Kessler Syndrome (which is underway, according to Don) becomes really noticable. The biggest problems with Server Sky will be political, not economic or technical. Fortunately, local law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLC negotiated with ITU-R for the bandwidth for the Clear network, so we have local talent for this. In general, all the capabilities we need are in the Northwest, and most are in the Portland area. One of the reasons I am pushing this is to create jobs for friends and neighbors. We won't launch this as individuals, nor will individuals have complete control of individual server-sats. But many of us can make valuable individual contributions to making this happen, in the right way. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom [email protected] Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ The Personal Telco Project - http://www.personaltelco.net/ Donate to PTP: http://www.personaltelco.net/donate Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.wireless.portland.general/ Etiquette: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MailingListEtiquette List information: http://lists.personaltelco.net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
