Re: ATM Amateur Space Telescope, (AST)

["Chris Westland" <westland@uxmail.ust.hk>]

An additional thought on the economics, albeit a holf-baked idea at this
point

 ... the way to save money on these ventures is long production runs, since
a major portion of the cost is R&D.  Rather than considering a one-off
project, how about a modified telecommunications sattelite.  Retain the
controls for the antennas, but replace their mass with a telescope  (I say
this not knowing what kind of accuracy is involved in pointing one versus
the other ... but then the Hubble stabilization, pointing, etc. code and
electronics design are public domain, and downloadable from someplace on
NASA Internet servers).   With this you would have the ground station
equipment, tried and tested orbiting equipment, have a good idea of the
services life, and you would know that the whole system would fit into some
sort of commercial launch vehicle.  

In the US, Hughes could provide the likeliest platform -- they have about
30% of the worldwide telecommunications sattelite biz.   Thier
vehicle+launch+insurance costs must be in the range of $25MM to $100MM.  I
understand the Russians have a much cheaper alternative, reflecting longer
production runs, mainly due to shorter service life, at about $5MM to
$20MM.   I'm not sure what determines service life ... whether it is
bombardment by meteorites, or some internal shortcoming (this equipment
must be alternately fried and frozen several times daily)

-c