G15 troubles

[tvropro]

If Intelsat can't shut down G-15, which so far they haven't. It will play havoc with each C band bird as it drifts east till it looses earth orientation and the solar batteries run down. It is interesting watching what happens though. I wonder how bad it may interfere with 131w. Look at it it this way were getting to see part of Satellite history in the making

 

[alk3997]

According to the article I think they plan on trying again after it moves away from the other C-Band satellites.
(Maybe they can try sending higher powered "shut down" signals)

If you re-read the article closely, the PR-person was doing their job by making it sound like more was going on than really is.

Translating - they said that currently they have no other ideas on how to shut it down. However, if they did come up with something there is an opportunity to use those ideas (which they don't have yet) when Galaxy 15 moves between satellites.

Basically they wanted to say they haven't given up but really don't have any ideas that are worth trying, at this time - "We do not have an additional specific technical attempt identified at this time."

Andy

 

[Blindowl1234]

Maybe someone already answered this one.....Where is the Classic Arts channel at?
I couldn't get it last night on 133W....figured by now it moved. Thanks Blind

 

[B.J.]

Try page 376 & 377 of:
2005ESASP.587..373J Page 377

(it's actually only 5-6 pages long but the page numbers are from the overall journal)

I believe it was Insat IIB.

Andy

Thanks. I looked at this yesterday, and couldn't make much sense out of it because the graphs were too small to read. So I went about the task of looking at a couple sats, looking at the apogee/perigee info for both, for what it was back in the 1990s, and currently. I looked at GOES-6, which is oscillating around 105, and I looked at Westar 2, which is in continual drift. For both sats, the average between apogee and perigee are the same now as they were back in the 90s, however for both sats, the orbits have become more eliptical.

For W2 for example, the apogee in 1998 was 35926, and is now 35931, ie out further, however the perigee in 1998 was 35886, and it's now 35881, ie closer to earth. The average of the two is 35906 both then and now. The only very minor differences I can see other than this is the period seems to have very slightly increased from 1442.20 to 1442.22, and that the inclination of both sats have increased over the decade.

I was about to then do some more runs on these two sats, to see how the varying longitude affects the above parameters, however THEN, I looked once more at the URL you posted. THIS time I hit the PRINT button, and found that when you do that, it spits out a PDF file, which you can enlarge, and see the graphs clearly. DUH.

Anyway, looking at the data there, it seems apparent, that my comparing data from only about 12 years apart probably wasn't of much value, since the graphs there basically show a periodicity whereby the difference between apogee and perigee increase, then decrease, then increase, ie the lowest perigee always associated with the highest apogee, and the average being pretty constant (as I observed). Basically, it doesn't look like any meaningful trends can be observed over a period of only a decade or two, since the natural fluxuations within that period are greater than any long term trend.

So I guess the answer to my question is basically unknown.

I did manage to find (on an old hard drive) a nice geosync sat list from 1998, that I can compare to current similar lists available on the SpaceTrack web page.

 

[Krapola]

Is there any hope of getting control of Galaxy 15 or turning it off after it passes through AMC 11's box?

The information for public consumption is already offered....I would not post speculation or rhetoric...I think it is understood that this type of failure has not been dealt with before...

 

[photoman76]

Maybe someone already answered this one.....Where is the Classic Arts channel at?
I couldn't get it last night on 133W....figured by now it moved. Thanks Blind

It's still there, both analog (Transponder 5) and DVB (3816 H 3000).

 

[JimmyMcGee]

G-15 the bird that won't give up What a mess.

As someone said in the Space.com Article, "I for one welceom our Zombie Sat Overload."

 

[John Popper]

That's my weakest C Band sat, I hardly get the analog channels (Classic, EWTN and Inspirational. Shop NBC you cannot even make out the signal is so poor), the only DVB that I get is the AMC mux (encrypted btw)

now all of a sudden EWTN and Inspirational are looking strong, I guess they changed the sat cause I have never seen these channels looks so good!

 

[turbosat]

John up here, EWTN has always been that strong for me, I think I could get it on a pizza dish if it had the right lnb on it! It must be smoking now if its improved that much for you.

 

[eurosport]

John up here, EWTN has always been that strong for me, I think I could get it on a pizza dish if it had the right lnb on it! It must be smoking now if its improved that much for you.

EWTN was always horrible here, even on the 10ft. Now it's perfect on the 7.5! There's definitely more "fire-in-the-wire" on G12! :up

 

[John Popper]

Euro is right I have never seen g15 look so strong EVER

 

[tvropro]

They probably haven't adjusted the power levels to normal yet. Right now I'm sure there running the transponders cranked, wide open to fight the interference from G-15. Once it's not an issue anymore they will adjust the levels and footprint to normal.

We will probably see AMC-11 crank it up in the next week or too also, as G-15 drifts in it's airspace to do it's damage interfering.

 

[B.J.]

They probably haven't adjusted the power levels to normal yet. Right now I'm sure there running the transponders cranked, wide open to fight the interference from G-15. Once it's not an issue anymore they will adjust the levels and footprint to normal.

We will probably see AMC-11 crank it up in the next week or too also, as G-15 drifts in it's airspace to do it's damage interfering.

I'm curious about this "crank it up" concept. I guess I assumed that they just left the transponders on these sats in a constant gain so to speak, where the downlink power of any signal is dependent upon the power of the signal uplinked to to sat. Clearly, if they crank it up by sending more power in the uplink signals, it will also result in a more powerful signal coming out of G15 too, which would cause more problems than it solved. If, however, they can crank up the gain on the transponders, so that it will repeat less powerful uplink signals at higher downlink power, this might help more, if by chance there is some threshold power below which G15 won't repeat, although it might also result in AMC11 repeating some weak bleed-over from G12. In any event, if they do try dealing with G15 by adjusting power levels, it will be interesting to find out just how they do it.
I also expect them to ask for permission to drift AMC-11 a bit east of their box while G15 is approaching, and then zip it back west after G15 passes 131.
But one option that I haven't heard suggested, is just to shut off AMC11 while G15 goes by, and let G15 do the repeating for a while. The problem with this, however is that the polaritys are reversed between these two sats, so high SR signals would either have to switch polarity or change frequency while going through G15. Actually, the reversed polarity won't affect narrow signals much, as the bands overlap, however high SR signals will have some very strange corruption due to the hole right in the middle of the band. Seems somewhat similar to a SSB situation where the center carrier would be removed by the nulls between two transponders, but the sidebands let through.
I just wish these sats were in a part of the sky that I can actually see now that the leaves are coming out on the trees, because this would be fun to watch.

 

[Lak7]

A little reading...
The Buzz Log - Zombie Satellite Causes Astronomical Buzz - Yahoo! Buzz

 

[TRG]

'Zombie satellite' threatens other craft

I like the term "Zombie Satellite".

The Buzz Log - Zombie Satellite Causes Astronomical Buzz - Yahoo! Buzz

 

[JimmyMcGee]

A little reading...
The Buzz Log - Zombie Satellite Causes Astronomical Buzz - Yahoo! Buzz

As I've said in the past I'm not a genius here but I have a question.

The Galaxy 15 is on course to mess with an SES satellite that transmits to Luxembourg. If it's any consolation to the good people of Luxembourg, officials are calling the situation "unprecedented."

Tell me how this SES Satellite transmits to Luxembourg in Europe all the way from 131W over North America.
Yes I know the author got it wrong because SES is based In Luxembourg, not that is transmits there. Just being sarcastic.

The undead satellite has caused searches for "galaxy 15 satellite" to rise an astronomical 10,300% in the last week. Searches were also out of this world for "nasa satellite imagery," "satellite photo," and "nasa satellites." It's also caused people to wonder "how many satellites are in space." Not enough to bump into each other. Yet.

Curious as to how much of this is BJ and other Satellite Guys members.

 

[whatchel1]

Bounce

As I've said in the past I'm not a genius here but I have a question.


Tell me how this SES Satellite transmits to Luxembourg in Europe all the way from 131W over North America.
Yes I know the author got it wrong because SES is based In Luxembourg, not that is transmits there. Just being sarcastic.





Curious as to how much of this is BJ and other Satellite Guys members.

It bounces it over of course

 

[JohnH]

One option being considered is to move AMC-11 to either the north or south edge of its box and crank up the power,

If I remember correctly, G 15 has the opposite polarity configuration of AMC-11. This should minimise the interference. Pity those with smaller dish sizes and skew that is not remotely adjustable.

Something about May 23 being the big day for interference,

 

[photoman76]

The latest TLE shows AMC 11 at 130.19° West and Galaxy 15 at 131.36° West.
So they have moved AMC 11 as far away as possible from Galaxy 15.

SES is now asking permission to move SES-1 from 142.5° West, where it is currently undergoing testing after it's recent launch, to 131.3° West and operate it's C band payload for up to seven days beginning May 27th.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=815617

 

[tvropro]

The latest TLE shows AMC 11 at 130.19° West and Galaxy 15 at 131.36° West.
So they have moved AMC 11 as far away as possible from Galaxy 15.

SES is now asking permission to move SES-1 from 142.5° West, where it is currently undergoing testing after it's recent launch, to 131.3° West and operate it's C band payload for up to seven days beginning May 27th.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=815617

Must be expecting big problems. Could be good for us though with cable services switching to ITC status for a day or so