[amsat-bb] Re: Phase 3E lauch for 200$???

[R Oler]

what would be entertaining would be marketing the Phase 3 E bus or at least parts of it to various educational institutions that want to do more science then a cubesat can do...or maybe some place, like a lunar libration point that a cubesat cannot go.  the Mars thing is never going to happen but a lunar probe might...the comm payload might have to be downscaled somewhat but its a possibility  Robert WB5MZO and S2 something soon

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 21, 2013, at 8:35 PM, "M5AKA" <m5aka at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>> From: "lucleblanc6
>> Lets say 8000,000$ to reach just with the AMSAT-NA estimated membership of 3000 plus 
>> the other world AMSAT'S estimated at another 3000 making a total of 6000 contributors,  
>> who with a  special annual fund raising of 200$ to pay for P3E launch, this 8 millions 
>> can reach in +/- 6 years.
>> ...
> 
> Nice thought Luc, but I'd query the numbers. 
> 
> You suggest there may be 3000 members of AMSAT groups outside the USA/Canada, I say 700 would be a better estimate, I'd like to be proved wrong but I think you'll find a number of national AMSAT groups have a membership of fewer than 50.
> 
> The figure you quote for AMSAT-NA includes Life-members, by definition once a Life-member always a Life-member even if they gave up satellites years ago and are now living in retirement homes. AMSAT-NA sold a large number of Life-memberships in the 1970's at what now seems a very low price. I believe the number of AMSAT-NA members who actually pay an annual subscription is around 1500. A number of overseas amateurs are also AMSAT-NA members, so the number of annual subscription paying  US/Canadian members will be less than 1500. 
> 
> So it's likely that the world-wide total of subscription paying members of the various AMSAT groups could be under 2000. To raise $10m over six years every single one of them would have to pay $833 a year, I just can't see that happening. 
> 
> The costs for launching a single P3E satellite are simply too much for AMSAT members alone to sustain, to get to amateur payloads to MEO/HEO/GEO will take collaborative ventures with other organizations, Educational, Government or Commercial.
> 
> 73 Trevor M5AKA
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