First Server Sky Experiment

Hitchhiker


24 GHz instead of 70 GHz

The 1.25 cm amateur radio band extends from 24.0 GHz to 24.05 GHz, and is barely used. This is near the 23 GHz water peak, perhaps .18 dB/km at 7.5g/m3 water saturation. At 10 degrees elevation and 7 km density scale height, that is 7.3 dB attenuation; a factor of 5.3, which might be lousy for ordinary high bandwidth satellite communication, but perfectly adequate for low bandwidth telemetry.

Impulse

Let's raise perigee just enough to make 92 each 5 gram thinsats (V = 3 array) last a couple of months - lets assume that is 922 km altitude perigee (7300 km radius). Assume a carrier that brings the total mass up to a kilogram. Start with a GTO transfer orbit with a perigee of 622 km altitude (7000 km radius), with an apogee velocity of 1640.7 m/s. The test orbit has an apogee velocity of 1692.4 m/s, for a delta V of 29.5 meters per second for one kilogram, the impulse of 30 Newton-seconds.

Note: I probably need to redo my calculations, but the drag is so low at 600 km perigee that the orbits may last a very long time, perhaps too long.

MoreLater

HitchHiker (last edited 2014-11-06 23:41:40 by KeithLofstrom)