Hi Miles, To get an idea about the difficulty to designe and build a transponder that must work on the moon I suggest to carefully see the following links.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19720012254_1972012254. pdf If you have problems to get the above NASA report from internet I can send a pdf file to you or to any people is interested but it is about 4 MB long Also the following pictures and drawings are self explanatory. http://www.myspacemuseum.com/alsep01.htm After reading both the above papers you will realize that the task is very hard viable by any amateur team. 73" de i8CVS Domenico ----- Original Message ----- From: "MM" <ka1...@yahoo.com> To: <amsat-bb@amsat.org>; "Armando Mercado" <am25...@triton.net> Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 2:53 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] ILN... Is this our future ride to the moon? MM Yes Exactly! We need to form a proposal team that can evaluate the data to find out if an EME-Repeater is viable. Time is short. First ask Experts if building a transponder for the Moon is feasible with current technology. If it were, How many Amateur radio operators would be able to afford such a project? We know the are hundreds of Hams, which have used EME at one time, or another. If we build a working transponder, how many more hams would have access to and EME-Repeater? Based on the number of users that could build an EME-Repeater link, we would go ahead with the idea and take it to the next phase. There no sense in building an EME-Repeater project if only a hundred people would be able to access the EME-Repeater. So if the project looks feasible and there is a big enough potential group of Amateur Radio stations that would uses such a project, then we would start talking to all of our contacts at NASA, ESA, RSA to see if we can get some additional support to help with the project. Thanks Miles --- On Sun, 7/5/09, Armando Mercado <am25...@triton.net> wrote: > From: Armando Mercado <am25...@triton.net> > Subject: [amsat-bb] ILN... Is this our future ride to the moon? > To: amsat-bb@amsat.org > Date: Sunday, July 5, 2009, 2:48 PM > Greetings, > > The International Lunar Network appears > to be the unmanned landers NASA is planning > to put on the moon. The program is working to > put 2 landers on the moon in the 2012-2014 > time frame. > > Here are some excerpts from a Request for > Information by NASA regarding instruments > for its International Lunar Network (ILN). > Pay special note to the mass and power > limits. > > Is this what we are talking about putting a > transponder on? > > 73, Armando, N8IGJ > > ****** > > Date Released: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 > Source: Goddard Space Flight Center > NASA Solicitation: Instruments for U.S. International > Lunar Network (ILN) Lunar Missions > > > Description of Anticipated Requirement > > NASA expects to emplace the first two nodes (the "anchor" > nodes) of the ILN in the 2012-2014 timeframe with two > additional nodes to be emplaced roughly two years later, > depending on funds availability. All nodes will carry > identical core instrument payloads. The ILN mission > requires > long lived instruments which can be operated as a network > for six years (the anchor nodes will necessarily have to > last > longer). It is anticipated that a very small amount of > power > will be available to enable continuous operation through > the lunar night. > > Concept studies for the spacecraft are now under > development > at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center working with the > Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) of The Johns Hopkins > University. The mission will be tightly constrained in > both > mass and power. It is expected that the total available > mass > for all payload instruments will be approximately 15 kg, > although the precise mass available for the payload will > depend on the launch vehicle and other trades still being > considered. The total available payload power will be > approximately 15 W. > > The total budget for the ILN anchor nodes including > development and operations is $200M. Schedule and budget > constraints require that NASA mission planners focus on > relatively mature instruments. > > ****** > > See the following links for more info: > > http://www.moontoday.net/news/viewsr.html?pid=29834 > (The full Request for > Information) > > http://iln.arc.nasa.gov/welcome (General info on > ILN) > > > http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/file_download/26/ILN+Final+Report.pdf > > (Detailed info > on ILN... Note: large file 13MB) > > Happy reading, > > Armando, N8IGJ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. > Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur > satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
