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Satellite Back From The Dead

Posted by Hemos on from the return-of-the-living-satellite dept.

Papa Legba writes "Just ran across this amazing story about an amateur satellite that has returned from the dead. AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched in 1974 for radio hobbyists to use. In 1981 the onboard batteries died and the satellite went silent. Then on June 21st 2002, 20 years later, a hobbyist testing some new equipment made an amazing discovery. AMSAT-OSCAR 7 is live once more, both broadcasting and accepting signals. The theory expounded is that the dead battery short that took the satellite offline has cleared and it is now only running on its solar cells. While this does restrict it to daytime use, it is amazing that it works at all. " This was in the science section before - but worth the front page.

7 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Satellite back! by PhilJackson · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I was hoping you were talking about audiogalaxy! :)

  2. Re:Oh, gee. by Cmdr+Taco+(luser) · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yep. This must be a new record. By the way, 'slimo, did you forget a closing tag there?

    Hemos, do you read slashdot? This is amazing. There actually no news since yesterday, other than that AMSAT has re-classified AO-7's status.

    I would recommend everyone post thoughtful replies only to the original (posted yesterday) article, not this one.

    --
    All things in moderation.
  3. Damm! by quantaman · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    There weren't any real good comments in the story in the science section to rip off and pass off as my own!

    --
    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:Damm! by JayDoggy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Damm! I'll just copy your comment, then, and maybe I'll get a +1 Funny just for copying a comment about copying comments.

  4. Upon the Dawn of the Dead, it shall be ... by unformed · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Judgement Day.

    Jesus is coming; everyone look busy!

  5. How does this work? by You'reAFuckingMoron · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    This was in the science section before - but worth the front page.

    You'll have to forgive me, but I don't understand how SlashDot works. Both articles are in the "Science" section, under the "Space" topic. Why is one on the front page, and one not on the front page?

    If the "Front Page" bit has nothing to do with the "Section" bit, why not just click the "Front Page" bit on the original story, instead of running two stories and fragmenting the comments? Aren't the comments valuable at all around here? Or do only the stories matter?

    And, are "topics" orthogonal to "sections", or do the sections partition the topics, or what? What the hell is a topic, and why does each story only seem to have one?

    --
    What a fabulous troll your post was.... or how fabulously stupid you are. It's impossible to tell.
  6. Re:"Was in the science section prev.- but worth fr by robslimo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    OK, Let's moderate Hemos' article (-1 Redundant)

    Hey, if you want science articles, go to the bloody science section like I do. Being off the front page, the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) is much better, the trolls don't all jump in and far fewer mod points are blown on silliness. The comments attached to this front-page article will consist of a great deal more fluff and lame attempts at humor.

    But then again, maybe it's just a slow news day at /.