March 11, 2025
Dear pacsat team,
I want to tell you where I think pacsat stands today. We still have no
funding, but I have had
a discussion with Gerry Buxton about the project and I will try to
convey to you what I have
heard him say. ( Gerry, please correct me if I am wrong.)
2024 ended with a successful pacsat prototype. Our blinky board works
but it needs a
few tweaks before it could fly. Our software works. It may have a few
minor defects and
missing a few enhancements, but it is basically ready for flight. The
ground station
software is ready.
I anticipated that 2025 would be a milestone year. I believed we could
build flight ready
modules. Consequently, in November 2024 I submitted our 2025 pacsat
budget. I believe
that budgets establish a projects direction. I proposed a budget that
would, in my mind,
establish that direction.
I proposed the following:
Monies to resolve the few existing hardware issues with the blinky
board.
It cost us $2000 to build each blinky board and I felt we would need to
prototype a few fixes. Instead of $2000 for each tweak, I
proposed that
we enhance our launchpad design at a cost of $150 for each tweak and
then consolidate our final design layout on a cubesat size board.
This budget item has not been funded yet. I am hopeful it will be.
I recognized that the current design that used the AX5043 was limited.
The AX5043 is out of production. We purchased some supply of parts
from questionable suppliers, hoping that those parts were acceptable.
Also, the AX5043 was limited to FM packets at 1200 bps AFSK and 9600
bsp GFSK. We would need a new design if we expected to use higher
data rates and new protocols. I proposed that we start a software
designed radio (SDR) effort for that new design. Gerry indicated
to me
that an SDR design effort would not be funded.
The University of North Dakota satellite group contacted me indicating
they would like to fly a pacsat board on an upcoming mission. They
indicated that previous attempts to contact AMSAT had failed. They
had no design interface at that time, but I agreed to work with them
as their flight mission progressed. I proposed some monies in the
2025 budget to build them some prototype boards. Gerry indicated
to me that effort would not be funded.
ARISS engineering approached me about a pacsat system on the
International Space Station. Again we had no design requirements
but I proposed some monies to support any hardware we might build
for them. Gerry indicated to me that effort would not be funded.
Gerry did suggest that we build several "generic" pacsat boards
and place those boards in inventory. I think we have a challenge
in defining what a "generic flight board" consists of. It could be
as simple as our blinky prototype board cleaned up for flight.
There are a few interface issues that need to be resolved.
Gerry indicated that the Fox-Plus-B flight still planned
to fly a pacsat board on that mission. There has been
much discussion about the project but no interface
description has been provided. I don't know what
Gerry plans for us to do but I am sure that he will
provide direction in the future. I requested funding
for this mission but the status of that funding is unknown.
I believe that the pacsat team's efforts over the last two years have
been exceptional. I want to thank all of you for your efforts.
From a personal standpoint, my funding efforts have been very
frustrating. I submitted my budget proposal last November and
I expected that to be approved by January 1, 2025. In my mind
that's the way that budgets work. Now, without any budget at all,
we are not knowing which projects we should be working on and
how we might progress.
I have decided to step back from my role as pacsat team lead.
I still intend to be a member of the pacsat team, but at this point
I would like to participate in the SDR design task. If it continues
to be unfunded then I will need to determine how we might proceed.
Please don't give up on our pacsat efforts. We have a great design
and we can make it successful.
Bill Reed, NX5R
