Ascent Ground and Satellite Demonstration

摘要

Amateur radio operators have not had a high earth orbit (HEO) satellite since the untimely loss of AO-40 in 2004. Allot has changed in the satellite industry since then. It took a multi-national team six years to design and build AO-40 at a cost of several million dollars. It weighed in at 632 Kg, was about 2 meters across and could generate up to 600 Watts of solar power. In the current environment, the most likely affordable launches will be 3U CubeSat's that are about 30 cm across at the longest dimension, have a mass of about 9 Kg and might be able to generate 50Watts of solar power on a good day. Add to this the government mandated restrictions that all but eliminate international cooperation and the picture looks pretty bleak. AMSAT needed a way to take all these lemons and mix up a big batch of lemonade. This is one of the reasons AMSAT formed the ASCENT team, Advanced Satellite Communications and Exploration of New Technology.