Sky's falling...

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Originally Posted by waynez

I don't know squat about Satellites but how about this. Why would you try to move your satellite on or around the time of a solar eclipse. Even I would check the weather forecast before painting my roof. :) :)

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I think whoever wrote that report is either dumbing down, misinformed or misquoted something else. Solar eclipses wouldn't do it EXCEPT if the batteries were that stuffed any interruption of sunlight is bad news. If this is indeed the case then B1 is on very borrowed time indeed. At any rate if the batteries were stuffed then you would be getting signal outages very frequently as the Earth shadows the Sun for the satellite.

On the other hand a solar flare would impede a satellite signal, and does regularly. I guess bad timing that a random solar flare would interfere with a manouvere procedure given that neither happens very often. Solar flares also weaken electronics over time. It really is a harsh environment up there!

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Hows does a solar eclipse on the other side of the world even affect us?

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As you probably know it is the moon that causes the blocking of the Sun for us mortals on Earth. Well, for a satellite it is not only the moon, but Earth as well - and these are at totally different times given the satellite's position in space relative to either.

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Mmmm, I wonder... a satellite thats 14years old with a lifespan of 10years, maybe it's time is up.....

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It is. Optus B1 and B3 are "hand me down" satellites which used to be used for Australia only (B3 was our pay TV bird until we got C1). 14 years dodging space junk and solar flares is doing really well.

Optus B1 is already on a backup satellite control processor after it's primary failed last year.
Say if Optus B1 gave out all together tomorrow or in the short term (which is a likely situation given it's track record) it will take at least 2 weeks to get another satellite up, ready and in position. That's a pretty bad position to be in, Sky had better hope B1 lasts till D1 is launched or have a backup for their backup ready to flick the switch on...

....but wouldn't you think they would switch to their backup, backup given the events of yesterday, kind of makes you think that they currently have no contingency plan (backup for their backup) till D1 is launched. Very BAD!

The contingency is to switch to Optus B3 if anything goes drastically wrong with B1 for the time being until D1 goes into orbit. Not that hard to do as they only have to push B3 over by 8 degrees to move it into B1's position.

Transponder space will be tight and some non service critical feeds may have to be juggled, but the majority of the Australian services on B3 can be switched over to C1 anyway as it has a fair bit of capacity.

Would take a few days tops to move it all around.

aww I was enjoying the Sky bashing... :P

heh this is a good read almost as good as the time machine
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics...n-52360702.htm