> A school to provide the $50,000 launch..... > Anything from keeping 50 hams from donating > $1000 a piece and just buying a launch > - no school involved?
Sure, anyone. I havent priced the latest launch integratiojn costs from the Cubesat Program recently, but the $50k was their original plan... > On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Robert Bruninga > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > A last comment, a LEO would be virtually worthless > > for Emergency NET communications and HF is still > > a viable and reliable means of communications... > > > Well, I still think a bunch of 145.825 APRS digipeating > satellites in LEO that would allow text-messaging from anywhere > in the world at any time, downlinked into the APRS-Internet > system and hence global internet connectivity is still a great > way to go for basic messaging for emergency response. With just > 6 such tiny 4" cubesats, you could get a message in-or-out with > no more than a half hour wait from the front panel of your APRS > mobile radio. With a dozen of these, you could have global > communications anywhere instantly or with no more than a 5 > minute wait. > > Our goal is to get more of these up there to join the ISS > digipeater, but of the 4 we have lanuched so far, all were > short-term orbits and so the most we have ever had operational > at one time was 3 (PCSAT-1, ANDE and RAFT). That is one of the > main reasons we wanted to see ISS on 145.825 to join the > constellation. ISS was still on 145.800 during most of the life > of those three birds (which were all on 145.825) > > Today, with 6 AA NiCd's, a 19" whip antennna, and a 3.4" square > APRS Microtacker TNC/Radio you can throw together an APRS > satellite for under $400. Add cheap solar panels, a lot of > sweat equity and then find a school to provide the $50,000 > launch, and bingo, A LEO satellite with great utility that > anyone can use while mobile for text messsaging and email from > the front panel of their APRS radio. > > Please see the Microtrack TNC/Radio which can serve as the > entire Comms, Command, Control and Telemetry module: > > http://www.byonics.com/microtrak/mt-tt4.php > > And see our cubesat project: http://www.aprs.org/psat.html > though this web page needs to be significanly updated.. > > Bob, WB4APR > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are > those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur > satellite program! > Subscription settings: > http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > > _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
