XPost: rec.radio.shortwave   
   From: detritus@ix.netcom.com   
      
   dave wrote:   
      
   > On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:39:03 +0000, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:   
   >   
   > >> It is much more important to know exactly how long and how well your   
   > >> satellite is going to work than to hope to get longer by using a   
   > >> technology that might last longer, but will more probably die   
   > >> unexpectedly when struck by a cosmic ray burst.   
   > >   
   > > Sometimes you can not predict how long a satellite will be used. A   
   > > friend of mine worked on a civilian satellite for a defense contractor   
   > > and just before the division was sold off, cleaned out any old documents   
   > > and files they had on it.   
   > >   
   > > Since the satellite he had worked on was way past its expected life (but   
   > > still in use), the contracts had long expired, the work was not   
   > > classified and a new improved one was due to be launched in a few days,   
   > > he was told to dump it all.   
   > >   
   > > A few days later, the booster exploded on the pad, and the replacement   
   > > was destroyed.   
   > >   
   > > The sattelite was kept running for many years, although there were no   
   > > documents on what to do or how it was built.   
   > >   
   > > Geoff.   
   >   
   > What good is a diagram if the unit is 24,000 miles in the air?   
      
   It had better *not* be in the air...  ;-)   
      
   Besides - I saw mention upthread of using the ambient   
   vacuum with just the tube elements, rather than a typical   
   evacuated glass (or other material) enclosure...is the   
   vacuum in geosynchronous orbit really hard enough?   
   It would seem to me that there are probably plenty of   
   gas molecules floating around at that height, even if   
   it would still qualify as a "soft" vacuum.  Anybody?   
      
   Lord Valve   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)