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Geostationary GPS Satellite Galaxy 15 Out of Control
Bruce Perens writes "The Galaxy 15 commercial satellite has not responded to commands since solar flares fried its CPU in April, and it won't turn off. Intelsat controllers moved all commercial payloads to other birds except for WAAS, a system that adds accuracy to GPS for landing aircraft and finding wayward geocaches. Since the satellite runs in 'bent pipe' mode, amplifying wide bands of RF that are beamed up to it, it is likely to interfere with other satellites as it crosses their orbital slots on its way to an earth-sun Lagrange point, the natural final destination of a geostationary satellite without maneuvering power." (More below.)
Bruce continues: "The only payload that is still deliberately active on the satellite is its WAAS repeater. An attempt to overload the satellite and shut it down on May 3 caused a Notice to Airmen regarding the unavailability of WAAS for an hour. Unsaid is what will happen to WAAS, and for how long, when the satellite eventually loses its sun-pointing capability, expected later this year, and stops repeating the GPS correction signal. Other satellites can be moved into Galaxy 15's orbital slot, but it is yet unannounced whether the candidates bear the WAAS payload."
Nuke the rogue satellite in the orbit.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Haven't the military got some super satellite-busting weapon they've been dying to test?
No sig today...
but it's the only way to be sure!
After sending between 150,000 and 200,000 commands to the satellite to coax it back into service, Intelsat was forced to scrap its satellite-recovery efforts and to resort, on Monday, to a limited-duration effort to force the satellite to shut down its transponders. This was to be accomplished by sending a stronger series of signals designed to cause Galaxy 15's power system to malfunction and force a shutdown of the satellite's payload. That attempt, which Luxembourg-based, Washington-headquartered Intelsat had viewed as its last, best-understood option for Galaxy 15, was unsuccessful.
The last message from the satellite was "I'm sorry, Intelsat. I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Forgive my ignorance in these highly technical matters, but when exactly did we start sending up Small Or Home Office satellites?
I always wondered what that particular SOHO meant. Drove me nuts because I heard of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory first.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
no thats just comcast service as usual.
You've put me in a difficult situation explaining this to you since it appears you read the title but not the summaries or the articles, yet somehow knew that this is a commercial communications satellite. Here's a linky with details on how it *does* have something to do with GPS: http://www.gpsworld.com/gps/news/waas-broadcasting-satellite-having-problems-9810
Since I can't be sure you will read TFL, here's the first paragraph that you probably won't read either:
Intelsat S.A. announced they lost control of their Galaxy 15 (G-15) satellite. G-15 (PRN 135 to GPS users) is one of the two Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) broadcasting satellites (GEOs) that broadcast GPS corrections for aviation and ground users all over North America. Despite the Intelsat announcement, the WAAS payload on G-15 is still broadcasting corrections.
Are there any other sources we can provide that you also won't read?
cellular-based pagers
PAGERS???? What the hell is a pager?
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
They forgot to use sudo.
$ reentry_burn
I'm sorry, Intelsat. I'm afraid I can't do that
$ sudo reentry_burn
Reentry burn initiated. Atmospheric entry in +00:15:00
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Oops. These are not L1 and L2? I am having trouble imagining the physical mechanism for earth-relative libration point. There's no other mass and this is a phenomenon driven by the oblate shape of the earth?
Bruce Perens.
PAGERS???? What the hell is a pager?
Ask your grand parents.
Reminded me of this gem from NotAlwaysRight:
Apparently, it is possible for someone to be standing next to your satellite and cause interference, as long as the someone is another satellite. (But it isn't easy to tell them to stop... :P )
Perhaps they can launch and rendezvous a 100 ton steel 'funnel' and fit it over the satellite thus preventing it from spewing tons of satellite pollution toward earth. In fact, such a device has already been built and is currently not being used. Bonus, it's currently located not all that far from Cape Canaveral and transport ships are located nearby.
There is, as far as I am aware, a special L-band payload for WAAS. It was contracted to be installed on several communications satellites that are otherwise used for C-band and other civilian bands.
Bruce Perens.
Well, we don't really care about its other functions since they were moved to other C-band satellites without making the news. You can't move WAAS to a C-band-only satellite, you need the special L-band payload.
GPS doesn't work as well without it, but the real reason I used "Geostationary GPS" in the title was that Slashdot would not let me have enough characters in the title to say something more accurate.
Bruce Perens.
You underestimate the power of sudo.
a short, relatively unintelligible message that gets interpreted through wishful thinking to something of meaning.
my god, twitter reinvented ouija.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Are you kidding? Imagine this happening during the last episode of Lost.. It would make the Rodney King riots look like a day at the beach...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Duhh, nuke the debris with a second one. ;-)
Heh, you're wrong AND you're an asshole. Good job.
Well it's a good thing all of us pilots know how to fly planes without RNAV and GPS approaches. Right? You did pay attention in IFR training, right?
I am sure a lot of them are incapable of flying VFR without GPS now. Look at all those car drivers who end up in rivers because the GPS shows a way across.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
It's a thing people used to wear on their belts after onions went out of fashion.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Unless this is PART of the last episode of Lost...MAN they're good!
Stupid Planck Constant.
Take a look through his posting history and try to find a single post in which he's NOT an asshole. It's like a drinking game for puritans.