how about an amsat moon mission?
There is currently 30 million USD on the table for the first privately funded venture to return to the moon, rover 500 meters, and send back a mooncast (about a GB of data) Would AMSAT like to be involved in this? A transponder on OSCAR 0 with enough bandwith for video has possibilities and the 30 million could provide a nice subsidy, or we could partner with one of the competetors for a low cost/free ride in exchange for ??. What do those on the BB think? see http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/for details. amsat-dl is headed to mars, and the moon seems easier, not to mention the prize funding on the table. OSCAR 0 could use an upgrade, Let's do it!
AF6EP
Going to the moon is now possible.
With nasa now planning on landers and rovers, etc. it maybe be possible to piggy back on one of thoes rockets and get a free ride and free power and maybe reuse existing nasa antennas.
The last time i checked the power source was not defined for the landers. that is one of the key issues.
Next, we need to find the schematics for AO-13 dust them off and build the same transponers. We need to keep it simple, none of this digital radio stuff, just a simple mode B transponers. Need something that can be thrown together in less than 12 months and easily duplicated.\ A digital system would take 10 years and 10 million to develop (remember ao-40, 10 years and 3+ million).
Any clubs out there have the prints and want to submit the ao-13 transponer to be tide to a lander on the Moon?
wf1f, Miles
--- Eric Fort eric.fort@gmail.com wrote:
There is currently 30 million USD on the table for the first privately funded venture to return to the moon, rover 500 meters, and send back a mooncast (about a GB of data) Would AMSAT like to be involved in this? A transponder on OSCAR 0 with enough bandwith for video has possibilities and the 30 million could provide a nice subsidy, or we could partner with one of the competetors for a low cost/free ride in exchange for ??. What do those on the BB think? see http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/for details. amsat-dl is headed to mars, and the moon seems easier, not to mention the prize funding on the table. OSCAR 0 could use an upgrade, Let's do it!
AF6EP _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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Seems the best AMSAT could hope for is $25 million.
* The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth. The Grand Prize is $20 million until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. To win the Second Prize, a team must land their spacecraft on the Moon, rove and transmit data back to Earth. Second place will be available until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. * Bonus prizes will be won by successfully completing additional mission tasks such as roving longer distances (> 5,000 meters), imaging man made artifacts (e.g. Apollo hardware), discovering water ice, and/or surviving through a frigid lunar night (approximately 14.5 Earth days). The competing lunar spacecraft will be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras, and will send images and data to Earth, which the public will be able to view on the Google Lunar X PRIZE website.
It also seems the cost of hardware (HD cameras, still cameras, video transmission hardware...) and getting there would eat up a bunch of that prize money.
Still, we could always try to piggyback on anyone going there with our own transponder and offer the experience AMSAT has with space communications on a limited budget as an exchange for the upmass costs. . Kenneth - N5VHO
________________________________
From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org on behalf of Eric Fort Sent: Sat 9/29/2007 2:40 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] how about an amsat moon mission?
There is currently 30 million USD on the table for the first privately funded venture to return to the moon, rover 500 meters, and send back a mooncast (about a GB of data) Would AMSAT like to be involved in this? A transponder on OSCAR 0 with enough bandwith for video has possibilities and the 30 million could provide a nice subsidy, or we could partner with one of the competetors for a low cost/free ride in exchange for ??. What do those on the BB think? see http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/for details. amsat-dl is headed to mars, and the moon seems easier, not to mention the prize funding on the table. OSCAR 0 could use an upgrade, Let's do it!
AF6EP _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (3)
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Eric Fort -
MM -
Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR]