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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/AVXMRCZUNCFWOTP36KQED74GPT6PBLK7/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "CA+qbou5z9OU9BBRWN27iL5LMDyudpUoxeC=EVR-8+hcABt9iCw@mail.gmail.com",
    "message_id_hash": "AVXMRCZUNCFWOTP36KQED74GPT6PBLK7",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/SGEPTEURDPP5RNZWMBWI7HOGNQIWN63I/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "johnag9d (a) gmail.com",
        "mailman_id": "a458f56c7d8a4985a1449140c2b52908",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/a458f56c7d8a4985a1449140c2b52908/emails/?format=api"
    },
    "sender_name": "John Spasojevich",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb] Re: 22% votes",
    "date": "2012-09-21T16:36:30Z",
    "parent": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/PJ2TCUV2SL2YHXHPAYCLFJYQVKLOZQ4N/?format=api",
    "children": [],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": "Thanks Dan very well put. Exactly what I was trying to say.\n\nJohn AG9D\nOn Sep 21, 2012 11:23 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:\n\n>\n> Amen, Dan!\n>\n> Keith, W5IU\n>\n>\n> -----Original Message-----\n> From: Daniel Schultz <[email protected]>\n> To: amsat-bb <[email protected]>\n> Sent: Fri, Sep 21, 2012 1:05 am\n> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: 22% votes\n>\n>\n> Amsat is living in a brave new world where launches are fully\n> commercialized\n> and nobody gets a free ride anymore. We will either adapt to that paradigm\n> shift or we will cease to exist.\n>\n> Things were a lot different in the 1960's and 70's. In 1961 an Air Force\n> general had enough authority to allow Oscar 1 to be bolted to the side of\n> his\n> launch vehicle. It is like this in the early days of all new technological\n> ventures. The internet in the early 1990's was a lot more free-wheeling\n> before\n> the \"suits\" took notice of it and started to regulate it.\n>\n> In today's world the bean counters are fully in charge, and nobody rides\n> for\n> free. When you have commercial companies offering $10 million to place 100\n> kg\n> in orbit, that becomes the market price, and the only way to lower that\n> price\n> is to expand the supply of launches.\n>\n> This development is especially ironic because Amsat created the entire\n> small\n> satellite industry. There was a time when industry and government experts\n> laughed at us and our little toy satellites. We proved that small\n> satellites\n> are valuable and now everybody wants to launch them. A little company\n> called\n> Surrey Satellite Technology grew out of Amsat endeavors.\n>\n> AO-40 was a once in a lifetime opportunity. ESA offered us a 600 kilogram\n> ride\n> on one of the first Ariane 5 vehicles and we voted to go for it. The\n> reasons\n> for AO-40's failure have been covered before, and further analysis will not\n> add to the discussion. It is not a mistake to throw deep sometimes. If\n> AO-40\n> had worked as designed, it would have revolutionized amateur radio. We\n> gambled\n> and lost and we will most likely never see another 600 kg launch\n> opportunity.\n>\n> The Eagle project was started about a decade ago in hope of launching a\n> more\n> modest HEO replacement for AO-40, and to be able to do so on a regular\n> basis\n> so that a single satellite failure would not ground the entire program.\n> This\n> effort was overtaken by the tidal wave of cubesats. With every single\n> university on Earth launching a cubesat all of the available launch\n> opportunities are filled with pea-pod launchers and there is no room for\n> Eagle, unless someone writes a check for $10 million.\n>\n> Since cubesats are the only available launches, Amsat has started the Fox\n> program to participate in the cubesat trend. Amsat can help its case by\n> making\n> Fox the best engineered cubesat ever built, which should not be too hard\n> compared to some of the other cubesat designs that I have seen.\n>\n> The university cubesats use amateur radio frequencies as inexpensive data\n> downlinks, but they do not otherwise contribute to the basis and purpose of\n> amateur radio as defined in part 97. Education is mentioned in part 97 but\n> many of these cubesat programs just barely touch on the communications\n> aspects\n> of space flight.\n>\n> I also don't think that most of the student built cubesats are teaching\n> proper\n> engineering techniques, I wonder how many of them have gone through thermal\n> vacuum or radiation testing. Some cubesat groups are still purchasing off\n> the\n> shelf ham HTs and simply removing the plastic case before mounting it in\n> the\n> satellite, because they \"don't know how to design an RF system\". I doubt\n> that\n> the students are learning the engineering and career skills that they will\n> need to survive in the real world when they get entry level jobs at Boeing\n> or\n> Lockheed Martin after graduation. Nevertheless there is substantial\n> financial\n> support for student built satellites which are perceived to be training and\n> inspiring the next generation of engineers, while ham radio has a public\n> image\n> of being the last century's technology, a hobby of elderly men using Morse\n> code and vacuum tube radios, and nobody with money to donate cares if hams\n> can\n> use a satellite to work rare DX countries. Our link to education is likely\n> to\n> be one of our only ways to secure low cost launches in the future, so we\n> had\n> better find ways to work with and direct the student groups toward building\n> well engineered, long lived satellites with a real communications mission\n> in\n> mind.\n>\n> We can also look around and take notice of what other groups are doing in\n> space. Many different forms of electric propulsion are in development or\n> are\n> now flying, and this technology has the possibility to enable some of the\n> HEO\n> missions that we desire. What if we had been able to propel ARRISSat into a\n> higher orbit instead of helplessly watch it reenter a mere six months after\n> deployment from the ISS? What if we had been able to nudge AO-13 away from\n> its\n> destructive resonance and prevent it from reentering far too early?\n>\n> Another area where Amsat has failed has been in the news media. When Amsat\n> does not receive credit for its accomplishments, others are free to rewrite\n> history and claim that they were the first to accomplish every new thing,\n> sometimes claiming credit for things that Amsat first did three decades\n> ago.\n> The universities have professional public relations staff who know how to\n> plant favorable news stories in the media. When Amsat launched AO-40 some\n> of\n> us tried to get the mainstream news media interested in the story, but not\n> having professional contacts in the media, our efforts fell flat on the\n> floor.\n> The funding follows the publicity, and when Amsat misses out on the\n> publicity,\n> the money goes elsewhere. How is it that we launched AO-40 with barely a\n> mention in the popular press or in space industry publications?\n>\n> Those of you who are lapsed Amsat members and will not rejoin until a HEO\n> is\n> launched really should reconsider. The membership dues are not that high,\n> and\n> we still need your active participation if any of this is to come to\n> fruition.\n> Giving up on Amsat by lapsing your membership pretty well insures that we\n> will\n> never again have a HEO satellite.\n>\n> 73\n>\n> Dan Schultz N8FGV\n>\n>\n>\n> _______________________________________________\n> Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.\n> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!\n> Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb\n>\n>\n> _______________________________________________\n> Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.\n> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!\n> Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb\n>\n",
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