🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3361@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
>henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> Pegasus, a winged three-stage design that will be air-launched from a B-52.
>> [...] Payload is 600lb into low polar orbit, 900 into low equatorial orbit.
>
>What does a typical commsat weigh, for example?
Depends on the type.  Geosynch tend to be heavier.  2000kg and up.
One major consideration is power supply and another is fuel for
station keeping.  BUT, low earth orbit fit easily in this.  The latest
AMSAT (Up and WORKING !!!! yeah) weights 140 kg.  This kind of
satellite supports packet radio techniques.  DARPA has funded paper
studies of a ``cloud'' of these as an alternative to geosynch.

>  Or a typical package of
>scientific instrumentation?
I've gotten data from a 10kg satellite.  But there is no typical.
>  Or (God forbid), a typical military payload
>(warhead, spysat, whatever).
Spysats are HUGE, partly because optics are huge and partly because
they want maneuvering capability (fuel+motor) and partly for long
life.  But a lot of this is the result of the present difficulty in
making a decision to launch on a day's notice.  (Optics being the exception.)

-- 
				Rob  Horn
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