Hi Zach,
ARISS is of course, a distinct and separate organization from AMSAT, an international organization. AMSAT provides major support for ARISS both financial and engineering/hardware. The latter is a substantial contribution that, just as with any of the satellites we build, amounts to an equivalent sum of money that is probably greater than the financial support we give. A lot of money is saved in the design and testing/qualification of hardware, since it's done for "free".
The purpose of ARISS (Frank B. please stomp this if I am wrong) is about amateur radio support for ISS, which is primarily educational outreach just as that is one of the leading goals for gaining a launch of a CubeSat, and to provide backup communications for ISS just as we do with amateur radio public service on the ground. The opportunity for extras such as packet, repeaters, and QSOs with astronauts is achieved through the relationship ARISS and AMSAT have with NASA and the work done by volunteers to gain the extra antennas and hardware to have opportunities for the extras.
The Lunar Gateway project that ARISS is pursuing right now along with AMSAT worldwide is an example of the growth of these relationships, and we are working on designs to provide a lot of opportunities beyond what is on ISS and with much more availability. That is a humongous step in the direction of "hosted payloads" (I guess I could use "giant leap") and will provide much more daily plain old amateur radio access.
ARISS and ISS are "old" and we are blessed to have the opportunity we have with ISS. It grew from SAREX and at the current state of design of the also "old" ISS when the plans were incorporated, it was a big gain in access to space.
What is there now is not and will probably never be made into a Fox/GOLF/HEO/GEO type of amateur radio platform, and the intent with ARISS fundraising is solely for the activities for which the partnership came to be. Supporting ARISS is not the same as supporting GOLF or rent-a-GEO nor the same as funds that will be solicited for amateur radio on the Lunar Gateway. I donate to ARISS along with many other AMSAT members and officers not in hopes of it becoming more useful as a satellite so to speak, but for the educational outreach of amateur radio in space and the unique and obvious ADVERTISEMENT of amateur radio that comes with the school contacts. Please don't confuse or commingle discussions of ARISS fundraising with AMSAT fundraising and the proliferation of ham radio in space.
Thanks.
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
On 8/22/2019 12:43, Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB wrote:
On 2019-08-22 10:58, Frank Karnauskas via AMSAT-BB wrote:
Before anyone writes a check for a rented transponder, please consider sending your check to help keep the ARISS Outreach for Students program funded.
A total of $150,000 is needed to replace and upgrade the aging equipment on the ISS. After eight months, the amateur radio community has contributed only $33,000 of which $6,500 came from AMSAT-UK and another $6,000 came from AMSAT officers.
Frank-
I suspect that this will generate a plethora of responses, so I've changed the thread title.
Respectfully, I've considered the use case for ARISS, both now and in the past, and I don't see a huge value proposition. The equipment seems to be rarely used, as evidenced by the crowd-sourced data:
Even the AMSAT web page lists most of the services as "rarely used":
https://www.amsat.org/amateur-radio-on-the-iss/
It is important to have school outreach and get youngsters introduced to the hobby, but it seems that $150k isn't going to work for us 24/7/365 like a repeater or linear transponder. Imagine how cool it would be to say to students "Yes, we are going to bounce our signals off the ISS. An astronaut might also be around to say hello too!" at any time of the day or night?
If you told me that ARISS is going to put up a 5G/10G package on the ISS and open it up for near-continuous access (subject to power budget), I'd be the first to donate. However, if you are asking for a sizeable chunk of change that is used sporadically at the whim of whatever astronaut happens to be there, I can't see myself donating.
How can we get a more usable (and automatic) station on the ISS?
73,
--- Zach N0ZGO _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb