Rocky,
Your question regarding SuitSat costs are not unreasonable and I trust your question will be answered shortly. When you have the cost information what then? The likely next argument is whether the "investment" is a good one or a bad one. The PR argument is an abstract - hard to quantify the results - good or bad. So lets consider this....
1) It doesn't cost us to "launch" a SuitSat (or whatever it will now be called) and I strongly favor participating in ANY free launch. The costs are material (and much has been donated by Microchip and the Russians), travel, meetings, preparation for launch, etc. Of course - the all volunteer labor is FREE.
2) The SuitSat type of free launch will be ongoing with several more similar orbit opportunities in the future (i.e. - launch from the ISS), and that's a real and "good" thing.
3) The new SuitSat is one sassy little satellite with some really neat features. I believe a satellite with its features in orbit for 6 plus months is much better than not having a satellite of its design in orbit.
4) We will have learned a lot getting it designed, built and launched and this will all support AMSAT's "modularization" concept initiated in Atlanta 2008, which in turn supports our next non-SuitSat opportunity.
So from my perspective - not a bad investment!
Regards...Bill - N6GHz
Rocky Jones wrote:
Launch costs are about 80 to 90% of a project, and in the case of the Suitsat2, practically 0%. We'd be foolish not to take that and run.
73, Drew KO4MA
Drew. I am sure that the "launch cost" from NASA are zero.
I bet that the integration cost are not.
Is it an unreasonable question to ask what the cost of the project are?
Robert WB5MZO
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