[amsat-bb] ARISS funding

[Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL)]

Zach,

I'm not sure how active you are, but there's a reason for the AMSAT Status
page showing limited things from the ISS that is equipment is needing
replacement.

Todo this of course requires money.

It's easy to look at the status and fire off an email saying what's the
point but sometimes worth checking the facts.

73,

Peter, 2M0SQL

On Thu, 22 Aug 2019, 20:02 Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB, <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
wrote:

> On 2019-08-22 10:58, Frank Karnauskas via AMSAT-BB wrote:
> > Before anyone writes a check for a rented transponder, please
> > consider sending your check to help keep the ARISS Outreach for
> > Students program funded.
> >
> > A total of $150,000 is needed to replace and upgrade the aging
> > equipment on the ISS.  After eight months, the amateur radio
> > community has contributed only $33,000 of which $6,500 came from
> > AMSAT-UK and another $6,000 came from AMSAT officers.
>
> Frank-
>
> I suspect that this will generate a plethora of responses, so I've
> changed the thread title.
>
> Respectfully, I've considered the use case for ARISS, both now and in
> the past, and I don't see a huge value proposition. The equipment seems
> to be rarely used, as evidenced by the crowd-sourced data:
>
> https://www.amsat.org/status/
>
> Even the AMSAT web page lists most of the services as "rarely used":
>
> https://www.amsat.org/amateur-radio-on-the-iss/
>
> It is important to have school outreach and get youngsters introduced to
> the hobby, but it seems that $150k isn't going to work for us 24/7/365
> like a repeater or linear transponder. Imagine how cool it would be to
> say to students "Yes, we are going to bounce our signals off the ISS. An
> astronaut might also be around to say hello too!" at any time of the day
> or night?
>
> If you told me that ARISS is going to put up a 5G/10G package on the ISS
> and open it up for near-continuous access (subject to power budget), I'd
> be the first to donate. However, if you are asking for a sizeable chunk
> of change that is used sporadically at the whim of whatever astronaut
> happens to be there, I can't see myself donating.
>
> How can we get a more usable (and automatic) station on the ISS?
>
> 73,
>
> --- Zach
> N0ZGO
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at 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.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>