[amsat-bb] Vega rocket (VV16) launch expected 2nd september : 3 Satellites with hamradio payload

[Daniel Estévez]

El 2/9/20 a las 5:40, Daniel Schultz via AMSAT-BB escribió:
> According to the IARU website description, "AMICal Sat is an educational
> mission which has been developed by UGA-CSUG and MSU-SINP during 30 month. It
> involved 50 students of different level and specialties."  
> 
> One of the reasons that amateur radio still exists is that we can educate the
> next generation of students, and AMICal Sat seems to fulfill that mission. If
> it was a commercial or government mission or an academic mission without
> substantial student involvement, then Part 5 or whatever the European
> equivalent is would be more appropriate, but to grow the next generation of
> space scientists and satellite engineers it would seem to be a legitimate use
> of amateur radio frequencies. 
> 

Hi all,

Just to add a positive comment about AMICal Sat's mission. If the
satellite works well and there is a good management plan from spacecraft
operators, we as Amateurs could be receiving and processing aurora
images taken by the satellite, and learning about digital protocols,
CMOS image sensors and space weather. See

https://destevez.net/2020/03/decoding-images-from-amical-sat/

for an idea of what this can look like.

Of course this needs a lot of non-technical work of engagement between
the satellite operators and the Amateur community so that a fruitful
cooperation can happen. Only time will tell to what extent this will
happen, but my view is already positive since that work linked above was
done in collaboration with Julien F4HVX, who was collaborating with the
satellite team. So we already see that this project is not completely
alien to the Amateur radio community.

However, I also value and generally agree with the comments about many
satellites using Amateur radio spectrum without adding any real value to
the Amateur radio community. Regulatory matters aside (IARU satcoord is
working really hard with this), I prefer to think positively about these
as "missed chances of cooperation between the Amateur community and
academia/education, or even the private sector (but take with a lot of
care due to the non-profit character of Amateur radio)".

Best,

Dani.