On 07/19/2014 02:04 PM, Jerry Buxton wrote:
other three would be "ready to fly" if other opportunities came up. If you're going to spend the time developing them, why not partner for free launches (ELaNa) for more than one? The opportunities for an FM transponder and educational outreach are good. I still have universities looking to partner.
Ah, because launches are scarce and expensive, and (re)developing even "the same old thing" consumes much of AMSAT's limited resources. And they're limited because we have yet to interest more than a tiny niche in what we're doing.
It's great to have universities looking to partner, but what do they bring to the table, really? Are we sure they're not just looking for free spectrum?
one flying soon, so that we can learn how well they work and apply those lessons to Fox-2 while we're working out the design.
We already know how well they'll work because we've done the same thing many times before. I hate to say it, but this is no longer "rocket science". The physics is well understood, and those same physics tell us how we could accomplish so much more with our (currently) limited resources.
--Phil