Hi Miles,
Since the rest of us on this BB don't have any details about the landers, it would be useful if you could get a copy of any RFP (request for proposal) and find out how much DC power will be available for how long, how much weight and surface area could be allocated for the package and what type of experiments NASA is interested in. Then we could calculate what could be provided for an RF downlink to earth and how many people could use it.
73,
John KD6OZH
----- Original Message ----- From: "MM" [email protected] To: "James French" [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; "Armando Mercado" [email protected] Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 14:26 UTC Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ILN... Is this our future ride to the moon? MM
The Amateur radio community does not have the resources to build a better communication system than a professional commercial company.
So we have two options, use existing lander hardware for communication or design our own stand alone transceiver project that just uses existing power and or antennas.
After the lander has released the Rover, the lander “May” have some unused resources. Lets see if any of these unused resources (if any) can be used for Amateur Radio projects.
How is the Lander going to be powered? Batteries only: If so, there will be no power for projects. The lander telemetry will stop after a few days. This is not a likely scenario.
Solar Panels and Batteries: In this option, there may be some available power during lunar days to run other projects. This is the most sensible solution.
Atomic Battery: This is the best option, however it’s politically sensitive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery
The power source is one of the keys to designing a possible Amateur Radio project. Let’s ping our contacts at NASA and see what we can learn about the Moon Lander projects.
Flash Back: On ISS, the Russian team proposed that we re-use navigation antennas from the FGB modules for Amateur Radio (1996). The idea worked and on the very first ISS mission we had access to an already installed antenna. It was a simple idea and it worked.
Education Spin: Contributing to the project from a scientific nature may be difficult, we will have to get some universities involved, or we could focus on the educational nature of the project. Lets try to put the educational spin that School and university are communication via the Moon, with radio station designed and built by the schools.
I am not saying that NASA would approve this project, but until we try we will not know. This project does not have to be an AMSAT project, we can make it a University project.
Sincerely Miles WF1F