Question:Could SpaceX use a stationary blimp to relay the signal? it does not have to be in direct line with the flight path, but needs to be high enough to have a direct line of sight to the receiving station. They could even use a series of them to make the link. ((( Mods - if there is a better place for this question, please move it and accept my apologies for the derailment )))
Cape Canaveral AFS is over the horizon. So the link is between the rocket and the ground stations, not ship-to-shore.
The 64 m subnet is committed to support the International Sun Earth Explorer (ISEE-3) spacecraft. The uplink and one of the downlink frequencies will be respectively, 2090 and 2217 MHz.
Interestingly, transmit power for the Barge and CCAFS are both listed as 1W whilst the Boat is 61W - so it could be just a short-range uplink on launch and landing and for a flight-profile uplink from the support vessel. If I didn't know better I'd have thought it might be flight termination.. but we know the stage is safed long before landing. Whatever it is really for it this application certainly confirms the existence of a short-range uplink to the rocket from the ASDS - unless it's via satellite and not to the rocket at all.
Huh? How about for the boat to control the barge and nothing to do with the rocket.
Quote from: Jim on 04/29/2015 03:39 amHuh? How about for the boat to control the barge and nothing to do with the rocket.Oh.. right. I was only looking upwards and didn't think of that!
Actually, in hindsight, although Jim is probably correct in his statement, that wasn't what I was specifically talking about: The 1W transmitter on the barge is possibly for their low-data-rate video stream to the boat - not for 'control' as such, at all.
Quote from: CameronD on 04/30/2015 07:02 amActually, in hindsight, although Jim is probably correct in his statement, that wasn't what I was specifically talking about: The 1W transmitter on the barge is possibly for their low-data-rate video stream to the boat - not for 'control' as such, at all. Why would the boat need video? How about something simpler like just information on the status of barge systems?
Quote from: Jim on 04/30/2015 01:47 pmQuote from: CameronD on 04/30/2015 07:02 amActually, in hindsight, although Jim is probably correct in his statement, that wasn't what I was specifically talking about: The 1W transmitter on the barge is possibly for their low-data-rate video stream to the boat - not for 'control' as such, at all. Why would the boat need video? How about something simpler like just information on the status of barge systems?Well we know the barge does have live video (low frame rate).