AMC-14 is almost in a circular orbit and the inclination is now less than 14 degrees. Does anyone have any idea what's up with this satellite?
Mario
Mario
AMC-14 - what's up?
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It looks like they are trying to fine tune its stationary orbit. They have it a 22, 000 or so miles now. I wonder what the military is going to do with it. Too bad they don't sell it to Dish.
"Almost in a circular orbit" and "14 degrees" are far away from GSO !
Do you know who is the owner of the sat ?
Do you know who is the owner of the sat ?
My understanding is the US Government (i.e., Military) bought the satellite when it could not reasonably be placed in a geostationary orbit. By "circular orbit" I suppose you are saying that the satellite is now circling the earth. If that is the case, it ultimately could be used as a surveillance and communications device for military or other governmental purposes, including mapping of ocean currents, continuous updating of weather patterns world wide, determining the effect of sun spots on communications, etc.--almost anything that would not require the expenditure of large amounts of fuel and maintenance of a geostationary orbit.
Fitzie
No, by circular orbit I mean not an elliptical orbit. The satellite is getting very near a geosynchronous orbit with a 13+ degree inclination. I really doubt that the satellite is equipped with any of the cameras or sensors that would allow it to be used for surveillance or mapping since that wasn't it's intended use to begin with. The simple fact of the matter is that they seem to be making an effort to move the satellite towards a geosynchronous or geostationary orbit. I'm just curious about what they plan to do with it once it gets there.
Mario
If it's in an orbit with a 24 hr period, then it's in a geosynchronous orbit. Geostationary means geosynchronous with a 0 deg inclination. Plane changes take a lot of fuel, so it's most likely the new owners raised the satellite to geosync but will never make it geostationary. It will require tracking antennas to follow the satellite as it moves (in a figure eight?) through the sky. At least it will never disappear over the horizon!
Thanks, but I know the definition of the terms that I used. I guess the speculation here means that nobody is really sure what is going on the the satellite.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Mario
Way back when this first went down, the news report was that "they" were going to move it into a 10 degree orbit (use unknown)
I have strong feeling, the satellite will have hard time to maintain position of his own directional antennas.
You sure had me fooled with your "geostationary" comment. If AMC14 had sufficient fuel to make it to a geostationary orbit, then there is no reason why Dish would not have keep the use of it. Geostationary is out. Geosynchronous is not.
I guess you didn't see the word "or." The inclination is coming down and the altitude is getting closer to the what is required for a geosynchronous OR geostationary orbit.
Mario
The other problem with using the satellite is that it is designed to use Ku DBS frequencies. It will be hard to use the satellite without interfering with nearby satellites. The only thing I could see them trying is testing the antenna performance over an ocean or somewhere where they did not interfere with other satellites. If they wanted to see how the designed worked in real world conditions they could gather lots of good data and incorporate in future satellites.
