UO-14 Satellite Declared Dead

ARRL writes "The UO-14 satellite has been declared officially dead. The Mission Control Centre at the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) Center for Satellite Engineering Research reports that the venerable and popular bird "has reached the end of its mission after nearly 14 years in orbit." "Since launch, UO-14 has completed over 72,000 orbits and as many charge/discharge cycles of its on-board NiCd battery," said AMSAT-UK Chairman Martin Sweeting, G3YJO. AMSAT-NA has said that its new ECHO satellite, planned for launch next March 31, will take over the role of the now-defunct AO-27 and UO-14 low-Earth-orbiting satellites."

junk

[martin]

oh good more space junk to avoid when I win the X-Prize :-)

WTF is UO-14?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article: Launched in 1990, UoSAT-OSCAR-14 pioneered the PACSAT communication concept as the first 9.6 kbps Amateur Radio data communications satellite.

I assume I'm not the only one who didn't instantly know what UO-14 did.

Re:WTF is UO-14?

[pmz]

I assume I'm not the only one who didn't instantly know what UO-14 did.

You are the only one. All the rest of us have been using it to watch your life from the day you were born. We were shocked when it went out and thought you were dead, but you can't imagine our relief upon seeing your post!

Quoth UO-14...

[wowbagger]

"Can you hear me now?"

"Hello? I said, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"

"Hello?"

72,000 charging cycles?

[TechnoCommune]

How do you get 72,000 charge/recharge cycles out of a NiCd?!

Re:72,000 charging cycles?

[n1ywb]

You don't, it craps out after 71999.

Re:72,000 charging cycles?

[babbage]

How do you get 72,000 charge/recharge cycles out of a NiCd?!

...one (orbital) day at a time.

Re:72,000 charging cycles?

[BLAG-blast]

> How do you get 72,000 charge/recharge cycles out of a NiCd?!

...one (orbital) day at a time.

True, the very regular charge and discharge cycle is probably the best way to get a long life out of a battery.

*Taps plays softly on a bugle*

[n1ywb]

It's a sad day for the Amateur Radio Satellite Service. Our birds are shitting the bed left and right. AO-40 is only quasi-operational on whacky bands, UO-14 and AO-27 are gone. RS-12/13 is gone. AO-10 finally died for good.

Actually, can we confirm that AO-27 is dead? According to the latest AMSAT Weekly Satellite Report [amsat.org], it's still operational.

The Saudi-Sats are both working, I made QSOs on both SO-41 and SO-50 over the summer.
AO-7 is still back from the dead, which is really quite amazing. And at least AO-40 is semi-operational. I really need to get some 1.2 and 2.4 ghz equipment.

Re:*Taps plays softly on a bugle*

[babbage]

I really need to get some 1.2 and 2.4 ghz equipment.

...that, and a life...

:-) :-) :-)

Re:*Taps plays softly on a bugle*

[NateTech]

Like what, watching "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" or something equally enlightening on Fox?

I'd say he has a life. At least he's learning something from his hobby.

Although I disagree that 1.2GHz and 2.4GHz are "wacky" bands... heh.

Re:*Taps plays softly on a bugle*

[LWATCDR]

If you consider that a life then I for one am truly sad for you. How about finding a nice smart woman, treating her with respect, getting married, and have a few kids and teach them to be good people. Over all a mucb better use of time.

Will it still work in sunlight?

[Micro$will]

I remember reading a story where an old satellite came back to life after 20+ years. Aparently the batteries failed "short", draining any voltage developed by the solar cells. Eventually the shorted cells disconnected for some reason, enabling the sat to send signals for short periods of time when it was in sunlight.

Re:Will it still work in sunlight?

[n1ywb]

Yes, that was AO-7.

I'm not sure of the electrical details behind the decision to turn off UO-14. I believe they had already been switching it off in darkness for some time. The only details they give is that one of the cells in the battery failed, possibly as a short circuit. This would prevent the satellite from operating, even in full sunlight, since the battery would short out the solar panels and consume all of their power. What presumably happened to AO-7 is that eventually the short circuit in the batteries burned itself out, creating an open circuit, which allowed the panels to power the bird once again. This could possibly happen to UO-14 tomorrow, or in 21 years, or never.

Re:Will it still work in sunlight?

[morcheeba]

Actually, the strings of batteries in the satellites I worked on (lots of small sats) were isolated with diodes. We had about 4 strings of batteries, so if one failed, we'd still have 3/4 power. The diodes would have to fail for a string to take down the whole satellite. More importantly, different strings in the solar cells were also diode-isolated -- they are particularily vulnerable to iron-bearing micrometeorites.

Re:Will it still work in sunlight?

[n1ywb]

One other distinct possibility is that UO-14's solar cells are working at a significantly reduced capacity. Space is a harsh environment, and I wouldn't be suprised if they've crapped out, thus preventing the bird from operating it's transmitter, even in full sunlight.

Declared dead ...

[frink_exp]

... by Microsoft?

14

[skinfitz]

"The UO-14 satellite has been declared officially dead. The Mission Control Centre at the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) Center for Satellite Engineering Research reports that the venerable and popular bird "has reached the end of its mission after nearly 14 years in orbit."

I guess we know what the "14" was for then. Perhaps they should have used a bigger number...

In case you aren't a ham radio operator

[OneOver137]

http://www.uo14.net/