[amsat-bb] Open Research Institute Phase 3 Space grant application overview

[Michelle Thompson]

Greetings! This letter is addressed to the board and the membership of
AMSAT-NA.

Here is the overview grant document submitted to ARDC, at their invitation,
on 22 August 2019 for the Open Research Institute Phase 4 Space project.

https://openresearch.institute/2019/09/27/open-research-institute-phase-4-space-grant-application-overview/

Phase 4 Space is an open source GEO payload project. It adopts the Phase 4
Ground air interface. This approach has been presented multiple times at
AMSAT events, conferences, and proceedings. Any payload that uses the
DVB-S2/X short-frame GSE TDM downlink, and the channelized 4-ary MSK FDMA
uplink, can freely use this system. It's current technology and is based on
the most widely used downlink in commercial space. Authentication and
authorization are optional. This is not a bent pipe, therefore a lot (not
all, but a lot) of problems with harmful or intentional interference go
away. Adaptive coding and modulation provides maximum bandwidth across a
wide variety of stations, payloads, and link conditions.

Phase 4 Ground team members have gained enough expertise to contribute
cutting-edge advancements to open source in several categories. Along with
the technical achievements, they've obtained promotions, jobs, PhD
appointments, internships, publication credits, and grown in number to over
200. This is a diverse and productive team using amateur radio to advance
the radio arts. All work is open source and published as it is created.

The Phase 4 Space project described in this grant overview unites the
global amateur radio community with an advanced microwave digital satellite
system. Four geosynchronous amateur radio payloads, and four flight spares,
are the product of the work potentially funded by this grant. All work is
open source and open access and in full compliance with all developer and
participant policies. Satellites to be placed 90 degrees apart for global
coverage. All amateur satellite and amateur radio organizations will be
invited to fully participate.

Detailed documentation of the communications payload development process,
space hardware, and other breakdowns are all under review and will be
published as soon as that review process is complete. All will be submitted
to granting institutions. ARDC is an obvious first choice.

Phase 4 Ground is successful international project that came from AMSAT-NA.
Most of us still consider it an AMSAT-NA project. The team is international
and now has connections to many other amateur satellite groups. The
organization primarily responsible for Phase 4 Ground and Space work is
Open Research Institute. This happened because AMSAT leadership in March of
2018 decided Phase 4 Ground and the just-announced Space segment should get
no priority, no funding, and no resources. There's nothing documented in
the published minutes about this. I received no direct communications about
it. But our email list was deleted, and Bruce Perens said the board told
him that they didn't want the project any more. Trouble was, it was just
too cool to stop working on! And we were making excellent progress.

So, Bruce Perens, myself, and Ben Hilburn (leader of GNU Radio) founded
Open Research Institute, a 501(c)(3), expressly to continue the work and be
an AMSAT member society. We wanted to offer people from AMSAT-NA that
wanted to legally work on open source satellites an option. If the board
didn't want Phase 4 Ground to be a directly reporting project, then a
member society seemed like a really good solution!

At that time, AMSAT-NA ITAR and EAR policies were not compliant with the
public domain carve outs in the law. Efforts to get AMSAT-NA policies
changed to use the public domain carve outs were rejected. AMSAT ITAR and
EAR policies still remain non compliant with the public domain carve outs
today.

However, setting up an independent 501(c)(3) worked. The technical progress
and success in legal international collaboration is clear. Unfortunately,
we got no answer to repeated requests to be considered as a member society
at that time.

Having a member society fully compliant with the public domain and open
source regulatory law would achieve one of the goals of my AMSAT-NA board
of directors candidacy: Open source engineering at AMSAT-NA.

Open Research Institute was founded in order to be a member society of
AMSAT-NA. We renew our request for this to the board and look forward to
this being considered.

Now, there's no process listed in the bylaws for becoming a member society.
Open Research Institute membership would welcome either an executive
declaration or for the status to appear in published meeting minutes.

If you like this project and want AMSAT-NA to support it, let me know! We
have a window of opportunity here. The time is right, you have a team
willing to do it, and an organization that can clearly benefit.

Thank you,

-Michelle W5NYV

If you are unfamiliar with my background, credentials, and campaign, then
information about me can be found here:

https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/05/candidate-statement-amsat-na-board-of.html

https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html