Next plans for AMSAT: P3E and P5A

First to recap: AMSAT builds and operates satellites with volunteers,
for use by amateur radio. AMSAT's most recent satellite was P3D,
launched around the year 2000. Some complained that P3D was too
ambitious - that the expense, time required to build it, etc were
getting out of hand and that a more modest satellite would have better
served the mission of help people communicate via amateur radio.

Anyway, fast forward to after the P3D launch. Despite a number of
hardware problems (maybe that is an understatement; as I understand an
explosion blew a hole in the side of the satellite in 2000), P3D
served ably for several years (2001-2003, roughly). In fact, measured
by metrics like available bandwidth, it surpassed other amateur
satellites, even in its crippled state. See
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/ao40/ao40-faq.html (which was written
while P3D was working).

Now, to get to the point. What's next after P3D? Well, looks like
the answer is two missions. One is P3E, which I suppose you could
call a P3D replacement (at least in the sense that it is in Earth
orbit and its main mission is to let hams on earth communicate).
See http://www.amsat-dl.org/p3e/index.htm - this project is well
underway (building hardware, etc) and seems to be progressing.

The other mission which was given the go-ahead is P5A, which is to
send a craft to Mars orbit. This involves a fly-by of the moon (to
deal with the fact that an Arianne piggyback ride to GTO gives you no
control over whether your orbital plane is the right one for getting
to Mars), followed by a Hohmann orbit to Mars, followed by an orbital
insertion burn into an elliptical orbit around Mars (lacking the delta
V to circularize it). This mission seems to be moving more slowly -
there were some tests that amateurs could receive signals from Mars
Express (which is quite cool, mind you...). But at least judging by
http://www.amsat-dl.org/p5a/ there isn't a lot of material about
mission design/construction (perhaps just because P5A is supposed to
launch several years after P3E).

I took a look on rec.radio.amateur.space and didn't notice any discussion
of these two missions. I didn't cross-post there as I don't know
whether this subject would be flamebait the way that P3D could be back
in the day.

Jim,

The annual AMSAT-NA conference is next weekend (October 8 - 11th) in Crystal
City, Virginia (D.C. metro area). The "Echo" satellite was launched earlier
this year.

P3E is known as "Eagle" and is in the design phase (expect an update next
week).

P5A (Mars mission) is largely being coordinated by the AMSAT-DL (Germany)
chapter. They are planning to launch on an Ariene booster.

Sir Martin Sweeting, president of AMSAT-UK, and CEO of Surrey Satellite
Technology, Ltd.(SSTL) is profiled in the September 27, 2004 issue of Space
News. SSTL is taking many of the lessons learned from earlier AMSAT
satellites (e.g. Oscar 6 and Oscar 7 in the 1970s and early 1980s) and
applied this to their first UoSAT missions in the 1980s.
They have transitioned from an initial study center for small satellite
technologies and manufacturing in the 1980s to competing and winning
commercial business since the 1990's (e.g., US Air Force, Nigerian telecom
satellite, Algeria, Turkey).

g. beat
AMSAT-NA
AMSAT-UK

"Jim Kingdon" wrote in message
news
First to recap: AMSAT builds and operates satellites with volunteers,
for use by amateur radio. AMSAT's most recent satellite was P3D,
launched around the year 2000. Some complained that P3D was too
ambitious - that the expense, time required to build it, etc were
getting out of hand and that a more modest satellite would have better
served the mission of help people communicate via amateur radio.

Anyway, fast forward to after the P3D launch. Despite a number of
hardware problems (maybe that is an understatement; as I understand an
explosion blew a hole in the side of the satellite in 2000), P3D
served ably for several years (2001-2003, roughly). In fact, measured
by metrics like available bandwidth, it surpassed other amateur
satellites, even in its crippled state. See
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/ao40/ao40-faq.html (which was written
while P3D was working).

Now, to get to the point. What's next after P3D? Well, looks like
the answer is two missions. One is P3E, which I suppose you could
call a P3D replacement (at least in the sense that it is in Earth
orbit and its main mission is to let hams on earth communicate).
See http://www.amsat-dl.org/p3e/index.htm - this project is well
underway (building hardware, etc) and seems to be progressing.

The other mission which was given the go-ahead is P5A, which is to
send a craft to Mars orbit. This involves a fly-by of the moon (to
deal with the fact that an Arianne piggyback ride to GTO gives you no
control over whether your orbital plane is the right one for getting
to Mars), followed by a Hohmann orbit to Mars, followed by an orbital
insertion burn into an elliptical orbit around Mars (lacking the delta
V to circularize it). This mission seems to be moving more slowly -
there were some tests that amateurs could receive signals from Mars
Express (which is quite cool, mind you...). But at least judging by
http://www.amsat-dl.org/p5a/ there isn't a lot of material about
mission design/construction (perhaps just because P5A is supposed to
launch several years after P3E).

I took a look on rec.radio.amateur.space and didn't notice any discussion
of these two missions. I didn't cross-post there as I don't know
whether this subject would be flamebait the way that P3D could be back
in the day.

The "Echo" satellite was launched earlier this year.

Ah, thanks. Missed that one. Lots of information at
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ including plenty of pictures of
the electronics at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/integration.php

The launch was a Dnepr rocket which launched 10 small satellites.
There's information about the launch at
http://www.aus-city.com/cgi-bin/ulti...4;t=001089;p=0
(Jonathan's Space Report #530 2004 Jul 8). And pictures of the the
payloads all next to each other at
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/photos.php .

In a week when Rutan, Bigelow, etc are (justifiably) making headlines,
it is fair to remember that AMSAT is "the other private space
program", and has been for quite a few years.