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Amateur Mars Satellite
Hobbyspacer writes "The German AMSAT-DL
group recently announced
formal approval of the
Phase 5-A project to send a spacecraft to Mars in the
2007 or 2009 launch window. The spacecraft will use the
same structure as
AO-40 (formerly Phase 3-D) that was launched into earth orbit
in the fall of 2000. Like AO-40 the Mars probe will piggyback on
an Ariane 5 launch and use the same 400 N propulsion system. (I
expect they will solve the problem that caused the
engine misfiring
that nearly destroyed the spacecraft.) The Phase 3-E
project was also approved to follow up AO-40 and to test various techniques and technologies for the Mars mission. The document
P5A-to-Mars!(712k pdf)
describes the technical challenges and possible solutions for
such an ambitious mission. AO-40 cost several million dollars and the Mars probe should cost considerably more, requiring they obtain funds outside of AMSAT members and the ham radio community. The long list, though, of spectacular contributions made by AMSAT to the development of micro sats and space communications gives the program high credibility."
I think this is kind of a big leap from just a amateur rocket in space earlier this year. What happened to an actual geosynchronous satelite, a lunar probe, or even an amateur manned space shot? I think they should plan these first before they leap into such a project.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
It's getting easier to imagine a Beowulf cluster of NASA's. Perhaps someday all research of this type will be conducted by consortia of interested (and vested) parties, sharing expertise, resources and data. Sort of an open-source space program?
how was that off topic?
being amatures, will this mean they'll be sending bacteria on their probe to boot?
...with all those magnetic bacteria kicking around Mars these days :).
i want nothing more than an amatuer, grass-roots, half-assed spare time devotion created rocket to blast me away from this dirty goddamn planet full of hippies!
Did I just wake up from a frozen sleep?
While all of these projects are cool, I wonder if the cheaper projects will have problems with lower standards of cleanliness and lead to contamination of Mars, possibly leading to the destruction of any curent life on Mars. After all Scientists have found that there was contamination on the first lunar lander that touched down on the Moon on 1967.
It took me three times, reading the summary to realize that they actually *are* planning a mission to the *planet* Mars, and that they are not putting up a bird to help out the Military Affiliate Radio System, aka MARS. It still makes more sense that it's a MARS bird - who'll be *on* Mars to use it? But there is (admittedly slight) a chance that this could prove useful here around Earth, if all Hades breaks loose with terrorists.
73 de NNN0WYZ
Lemon curry?
I'd give the project lik $20 or so if they would place a BIG sign on mars, readable from orbit, that says:
<Power to The User>
Then again, they would probably misfire, and I would be out $20, unless they refund donations.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Dude come on, they'll obviously be using GPS.
Interesting name for a German craft. Does it have blonde hair and blue eyes too?
Hallo Zicklein! Oben ankleiden wie hitler ist nicht kühl.
Here's hoping that they don't mix up Kilometers with Miles.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
Amature brain surgery?
Table-ized A.I.
Heck, man! And here I was about to suggest that they shoot some bacteria and cold-tolerant lichens and moss spores up there -- intentionally!
I'm all for keeping natural environments untouched when there's a clear reason or there's something we're actually protecting...but what would you suggest is being damaged on the Moon or Mars? And, personally, I find the idea of "contaminating" Luna to be ludicrous. We're not talking intelligent life out there, nor are we talking about nutrient-rich environments. We're barely talking atmosphere. The moon (and, it seems, Mars) are about as close to the true definition of "wasteland" as you can get. And, if we kill off the native Martian unicellular organisms, so be it. I want that place to be well on its way to terraforming by the time I head up there with the first wave of manned flights.
Best way to get at that all that locked-up water and use that carbon dioxide atmosphere would be to send some tough bacteria, with some of your basic algaes and lichens to start putting down roots...
Hippies are the true evil in this world.
Ever since I was a little boy, I kept trying to get my satellite to fly to the moon.
Everytime I throw the thing, everytime it falls down like a brick of lead.
Now I know.
What I need is an Atlas Rocket to get my stuffs "out there".
Where can I get one, may I ask ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
By studying life forms that managed to survive on mars we may learn what caused the rest to die off? We really don't know much about the conditions on the planet until we further study it in its existing state. Once that research is completed, we can do as we please with the ecosystem only with a more informed approach to the situation.
GPS is no longer a scientifically correct term. From now on, please use EPS (Earth) MAPS (mars) and MOPS (moon). Thank you dude.
..of when Taco and I were getting banged by these 2 guys when we were at a spa in Greece. Goddamn- my sphincter hurt for DAYS but Taco took it all in stride. When I was stuck in the hotel room keeping off my fanny, he was off riding a Vespa fer chrissakes- all around Santorini! I can't believe he was able to take the pounding of the scooter's seat on those cheesy Greek roads when just a few hours before his cheeks were stretched to the limit. Dang that's stamina!
I'm still browsing through all of NASA's satillite imagry of Mars hoping, waiting to see if they've noticed the probe I sent there many years ago.
but you ask how do I know it got there ok? Well I put a camera on it and it has sent back some pretty interesting pictures, I'm just waiting for society to be more able to handle knowing that there is life more advanced than ours out there...
hmm... so much for that secret, anyways...
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Seems like there's a lot of misconceptions about what the word "amateur" means. Amateur radio is named for its non-commercial nature (amateur as opposed to professional), and has nothing to do with level of competence. There are a great number of amateur radio operators who are experts in their fields of endeavor, and can hardly be considered "amateur" in terms of competence. Here's a list of some of the more famous amateurs. I see a Nobel Prize winner in physics on there, which I'd hardly consider "amateur."
Mars... needs... women....
'nuff said.
Those viruses/bacteria infected humans no matter where they were from, THAT is why they infected the natives. It is very unlikely that Martian life would be even remotely similar to our own, certainly not compatible to our type of life. Hell, they (if 'they' exist, which is unlikely) could easily be non-carbon based or far more advanced than us and immune to viral threats.
73 DE KE6ISF
This sig no verb.
"CQ Mars...CQ Mars..."
"Mars is on the other side of the Sun, wait a few months"
"I'm working the bounce off Saturn."
"Oh. Any luck?"
"Won't know until morning. Light speed delay."
Since they still have functional OSCARs orbiting, and they have transponders on the some of the same frequencies...
;)
They've already got a beowulf cluster of these...
how the fuck did you get so damn stupid u fucking retard? how's about u come over here so i can kick your ass u piece of shit! suck my fat cock u gay queerboy!
A dnierf my of deyrt that in I!2 Ti korw better neth be4
be happpy I
Um, the evaporation of the martian oceans? The elimination of almost all weather conducive to water based lifeforms be they carbon or otherwise?
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
There are also other national AMSAT organizations in countries around the world.
Who would use it? Amateur Radio operators have been doing satellite and "moonbounce" (using the Moon as a communications satellite by bouncing radio signals off it) communications for decades. It would be a whole new technical challenge to make contact via a satellite in Mars orbit. Not to mention the accomplishment of just getting a non-government spacecraft to Mars. The Physics to do this are well-known.
They'll undoubtedly also get some funding from universities who would like to put research payloads on the spacecraft. For example, AMSAT's P3D/AO-40 satellite carried a research payload from NASA (to map GPS reception from above the GPS satellites.) since it was going into a highly-elliptical "Molniya" orbit that NASA didn't have any birds in.
The ham radio community should be pissed off about this use of funds. NASA needs fields of giant antennas to make out a signal from Mars. How is a ham radio operator going to see any benfit from this? Your suggestions would be much more practcal.
well their engine might work ok for mars if they remember to remove the damn vent caps for the propellent mixing valves the next time....duh......
Have you considered the fact that "the roving prison" doesn't have to be on the equator? You should be ashamed :-)
If you nuke a polar cap with CO2, you could get more CO2 in the air. If you nuke a polar cap covered by lichens, you could end up with carbon dust on the poles and CO in the air.
The White Race: We Sent Satellites to Mars and Invented the Computer
The Black Race: We Invented Rap Music and Carjacking
I'm well aware of both satellite and moonbounce. I used to do satellite, and after finding out that moonbounce took major power and a huge aluminum farm, to do CW at a pre-established time and frequency with somebody you knew ... well, to me it was mainly an exercise in futility. Why even try if you already know who you'll talk to, what you'll say and when you'll say it?
Somehow, talking via a satellite around Mars seems like that, cubed. Count me out. I was into this to learn electronics, and to meet new people, not to prove that I have the most disposable income.
Lemon curry?
Does this mean that the award cup on display
at ARRL HQ for the first QSO with mars will
finally be awarded to someone?
If indeed AMSAT does this, who will be the winner
of the Mars Cup [acutally, it is the Elser-Mathes
Cup]?
Actually heats up the race!
Pump up the volume!
A british postal engineer first suggested the use of electronic machines(until then, mechanical systems where used) to decrypt the mytical German Enigma code.