[amsat-bb] ARISS funding

[Paul Stoetzer]

The ISS digipeater historically has been a widely used resource that's
available nearly all the time. Amateur radio stations on the ISS need
to be turned off for EVAs, docking, and undocking, but other than
that, the digipeater was pretty much enabled all the time the US
segment radio was not in use.

Unfortunately, both the radio and packet module seem to have issues,
which is why the new hardware is so desperately needed. The new
hardware should also enable more frequent activation of the ISS FM
voice repeater and more frequent SSTV events as well.

More broadly, I would note that AMSAT's vision statement has three
separate clauses:

...to deploy satellite systems with the goal of providing wide-area
and continuous coverage (Both GOLF and our work on the Lunar Gateway
are working towards this goal)
...AMSAT will continue active participation in human space missions
(ARISS - now leading to Lunar Gateway)
...and support a stream of LEO satellites developed in cooperation
with the educational community and other amateur satellite groups
(after Fox, the focus here is now the linear transponder system AMSAT
is offering to university cubesat groups)

All of these are crucial to our goal of Keeping Amateur Radio in
Space. I would note that without our participation in SAREX and ARISS
over the decades, the opportunity for an amateur radio system on Lunar
Gateway likely would not exist. The relationships that develop from
our participation in a diverse set of missions help to lead to new and
different opportunities.

73,

Paul, N8HM


On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 5:52 PM Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> On 2019-08-22 15:53, Jerry Buxton via AMSAT-BB wrote:
> > Please don't confuse or commingle
> > discussions of ARISS fundraising with AMSAT fundraising and the
> > proliferation of ham radio in space.
>
> Jerry,
>
> No confusion intended. I was simply responding to Frank's original
> email, sent to the AMSAT-BB reflector as a follow-up to Michelle's
> rent-a-GEO discussion.
>
> Given a limited pool of dollars, I'd rather see those dollars go toward
> something that any licensed amateur can use on our allocated frequencies
> anytime it is visible.
>
> --- Zach
> N0ZGO
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