Re: ATM Amateur Space Telescope, (AST)

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

This is radical!

Perhaps do-able, but launches cost more than $1MM, more like $5MM to $50MM
(unless you use the Space Shuttle which averages $500MM to $1000MM acording
to the Economist).  And rockets are getting more expensive since the low
cost providers have blown up several recent payloads (I won't mention any
specific Asian superpowers).  

On the upside, this would be a high profile venture, and I would bet that
you could get donations or corporate sponsorship for the optics themselves
(perhaps from some of the corporations on the Aerospace dole ... off the
top of my head, I would suggest Perkins-Elmer as penance for their job on
the Hubble).  

And maybe even a free ride for the optics (on the Shuttle) ... would you
rather send a telescope or a congressman into outerspace? (only one of
these actually needs to be brought back to earth).

I would also suggest that the Hubble would be better positioned somewhere
else ... as it stands now, the Earth blocks out a large portion of the
Hubble's view.  It was positioned in low orbit so that the Shuttle could be
used for maintenance and/or dramatic repair gestures.   

I'm not suggesting a Perkins-Elmer / Rockwell conspiracy ... but I would
have made the Earth much smaller from the Hubble's perspective by putting
it out, say, around 23,000 miles from the Earth, and directly over Hong
Kong.  This would be my undemocratic solution to the continual
light-polluted haze which confounds my viewing from the ground in HK.  

Good Idea, Jack ... I hope this results in a thread half as lively as the
controversy over which way one should point the fan in a telescope (blowing
or sucking ... not much of a problem in outerspace, hey-aa)

Cheers

-c

----------
> From: Jack Schmidling <arf@mc.net>
> To: atm-digest@shore.net
> Subject: ATM Amateur Space Telescope, (AST)
> Date: Sunday, September 01, 1996 2:23 PM
> 
> Speaking of "pushing the envelope"...
> 
> Amateur radio operators, commonly known as "Hams" have built and talked
> NASA and several other countries into launching, amateur communications
> satellites.
> 
> Now, a steerable space telescope is a far cry from an orbiting
> transponder but the idea of doing it is not totally without merit.
> We all know that the Hubble cost about a Billion but considering it's 
> monstrous size and more importantly, it was built by the government and  
> government contractors, there just may be a little fat in there that 
> amateurs working pro bono might be able to skim off.
> 
> I can't think of anything more exciting amateur astronomers could do
> than to build a 12 or 16 inch space telescope and if it could be done 
> for a million dollars, I suspect we could find a way to raise the money.
> 
> What do you all think?
> 
> Let's keep the discussion public.  I do not want to be burried in email
> unless it is subscriptions.  Just think, 1000 amateurs, subscribing
> $1000 ea, would get us a million before the long weekend is over.  
> That's the price of a modest backyard scope these days.  
> 
> Just think of logging on the AST Web site and saying, "to hell with the 
> street lights and this crappy weather, let's see what Jupiter really 
> looks like".
> 
> js
> 
> p.s.  My $1000 check is in the mail.
> 
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