[amsat-bb] Re:P3E funding question

["Grant Hodgson" <grant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Piero

Regarding your comments about more information about P3E - exactly the same 
has been said previously; reporting on progress towards the recovery of AO-40 
after the propulsion incident was one such case in point, but there have been 
others.  The problem is that all the work being done towards P3E, Eagle and 
most of the P5A work is being done by fellow members of Amsat, in their spare 
time.  The majority also have families, work, the need to eat & sleep etc, 
and unfortunately the thing that tends to linger at the bottom of the 
priority list is writing reports on progress.  

Yes, it is unbelievably frustrating to see an Amsat web site that has little 
new progress information, but this is simply due to lack of volunteer 
effort.  Any effort that is available tends to go towards design, 
development, testing, fault-finding, software writing, mission planning, 
negotiations with launch providers etc - I'm sure you get the picture.  The 
amount of effort that is contributed towards satellite construction is huge, 
and you can't really expect someone to start writing a progress report after 
spending many hours (or longer) sorting out some difficult problem. 

It would seem to me that the only way to improve communications about 
progress towards the much-anticipated HEOs would be to have at least one 
volunteer who is prepared to talk to the numerous other volunteers involved 
in the satellite building projects, either by phone, email or attending one 
or more progress meetings, and then disseminate this information on the 
appropriate website.  And that in itself is a lot of work.  Fluency in German 
is probably not required; most of the design documents are in English, most 
of the satellite builders speak good English, and most of the meetings (in 
Germany) are in English - at least to the best of my knowledge.  It has to be 
in English, because P3E is a multi-national project - contributions don't 
just come from Germany.

Once again it's not a question of 'what is Amsat doing?', but more a case 
of 'what can I do for Amsat?'. I'm sure that any Amsat organisation would 
appreciate any extra volunteer effort.

regards

Grant Hodgson
G8UBN@amsat.org
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