This is a new era in aerospace for sure.  One thing I would like to see Amsat pursue is a joint venture with some of the commercial companies currently launching placeholders for their spectrum space.  The company I work for has delivered hardware for two of this type of mission and proposed a few more, so they are not as uncommon as I would have guessed.  Basically, in order to retain their spectrum allowance, they send up a "sputnik" type beacon with maybe a little risk reduction hardware on it while they're developing the full up communication platform before they loose their frequency allotment.  Depending on orbit and altitude, this seems like a ripe opportunity for a partnership to launch an amateur satellite with the commercial frequency beacon on board.-Bill On Friday, November 29, 2024 at 10:24:18 AM MST, Jean Marc Momple via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:

Hi Bob,

I tend to agree that it will be more and more difficult to deploy our own birds in space particularly LEO with strick rules about debris mitigation and deorbit.

However with all the development in space such as these huge commercial constellations being deployed if we may piggy back on same to have some transponders on-board it would be great.

I know that there was some unsuccessful attempts with Starlink to accommodate our payload, I don’t know about Kuiper, OneWeb and others whether we have approached them or not, nor about the planned Chinese planned constellation which may be also a great opportunity.

In a nutshell building and operating a satellite is will become more and more difficult for us in the future but if we are able to put transponders as secondary payload on commercial missions it may just become a commodity and if we can achieve this the future focus should be on interplanetary HAM communications.

Just my thoughts

73

Jean Marc (3B8DU)

On Nov 29, 2024, at 7:15 PM, Bob Hammond via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:

I'm concerned about the future of amateur radio in space with the crowding of LEO  with commercial satellites (Starlink and Project Kuiper), the increasing influence of commercial entities in government regarding FCC frequency allocations, the increased cost of amateur satellites due to the need for deorbiting hardware, etcetera.

Have I invested in amateur satellite hardware that is soon to become obsolete?

I think these are valid questions and come from a Life Member of AMSAT.

Bob W7OTJ

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Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)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. Acceptable Use and Privacy Policies available at https://www.amsat.org/about-amsat/

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