8 comments

  • zorobo 3 hours ago ago

    Would a satellite positioned at Earth Moon L2 be stable enough? It would also need a relay to communicate with earth…

    • ericbarrett 29 minutes ago ago

      It takes a bit of stationkeeping to stay at L2; like keeping a ball at the top of a low, smooth hill - needs a nudge every now and then.

      A circular Moon orbit can last years with no fuel use if you pick your inclination correctly. Look up "frozen orbits" (the Moon is lumpy)

  • cozzyd 5 hours ago ago

    RFSoCs seem like extreme overkill for this frequency range, though since Xiphos makes a space-grade one, it's not so unreasonable I guess.

    Alas, I'm working on a competing project that I won't go into detail about :).

  • vincent-manis 10 hours ago ago

    s/dark side/far side/

    • NitpickLawyer 6 hours ago ago

      You're generally correct, but in this particular instance it does actually make sense to call it the dark side. Dark, as in "quiet" from RF interference. Just like some areas on Earth, near radio observatories, are declared "dark" (i.e. everyone tries to avoid using high RF emitting stuff in these regions, even comms satellites avoid it).