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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."
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.
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."