Satgen141  Where and What Next in the Amsat World     by GM4IHJ 8th Dec 91

AMSAT NA members met for their annual symposium on 8/9 Nov 91 in Los
Angeles, and the resulting papers and discussions make very interesting
reading :- The amateur radio projects come in 4 main groups .
1. Phase 3 D elliptical orbiter papers ( Orbit selection, Digital Video)
2. New Satellites - SEDSAT , SUNSAT and ADSAT
3. Pacsats - UO3 VITA, Traffic Analysis and Webersat
4. Other projects including the Solar Sail race, and Lunar and Mars probes

Quite separate from the above were a very useful set of 8 papers on
bringing space into the classroom. Then last but unfortunately, by no
means least a paper by ON6UG on "HIS" proposed laws for amateur
satellites. It is significant that neither AMSAT UK board, Amsat Belgium
board , nor Amsat NA board have given support to ON6UG's proposals to ban
SARA Oscar 23, and I believe the vast majority of radio amateurs will
totally reject this latest ON6UG outpouring. We need saner ,more
cooperative, and constructive plans for our future. Given ON6UG's rules
Uosat 2 SkiTrek usage, Uosat 3 VITA usage, Webersat, Dove, Mir FM and
Shuttle FM would appear to be rejected , along with, some aspects of
KITSAT (Korea), TECHSAT (Israel) and some of the new SEDSAT, SUNSAT ,Solar
Sail, and Mars probe proposals.

Happily ON6UG's proposals appear not to be on Amsat NA's agenda. Their
proposals are much more constructive. I particularly like the proposed
SOLAR SAIL RACE TO THE MOON.  Set for the 94/95 period this will hopefully
include one each, Japanese , European and American craft. They will go on
the same Ariane launch to geotransfer orbit , and then be pushed as a
group into a roughly circular 40,000 km altitude orbit. Once there the 3
birds will separate and their individual controllers will have 6 months to
unfurl their 4000 square metre sails , which are made of 2.5 micrometre
thick aluminised Dupont Kapton, and , then learn how to steer their craft
through typical sailing manoeuvres such as tacking ,reaching and turning
albeit in a 3 dimensional rather than 2 dimensional situation. During this
time they must stay within 50,000kms of the earth.

Then after 6 months they are off across the 50,000 limit heading out
towards the Moon, with the winner being the first one to send back a TV
picture of the "hidden " farside of the Moon. 

The whole proceedings should be readily followed by terrestrial radio
amateurs and could make superb classroom study material as well as
excellent media coverage. Hopefully these space sailor using the wind from
the Sun, will be the fore runners of bigger faster racers with which
amateur radio operators will eventually be able to explore the whole of
our solar system and beyond. 73 de John GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN