Amateurs work on Mars Orbiter

The Amateur Radio Mars Orbiter P5-A being built by Amsat-DL will deploy a balloon craft called Archimedes. The craft, being built by the privately financed German Mars Society, will hover close to the surface of Mars taking crisp, full-colour images. This is yet another example of radio amateurs teaming up with other technical experts on pioneering projects.
The radio amateurs building the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft have gained considerable expertise from the construction of previous amateur radio satellites including the recently launched Oscar-40. They will be testing some of the technologies to be used on the Mars Orbiter on their latest amateur satellite, P3-E, due to be launched shortly. The Mars Orbiter will feature a 10GHz beacon that should be receivable by well-equipped amateur radio stations.

Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, president of Amsat-DL, will be attending the Amsat-UK International Space Colloquium on 28 to 30 July at the University of Surrey in Guildford to give a presentation on the P3-E satellite. For further information about the colloquium, visit www.uk.amsat.org/Colloquium. For more details about the Mars Orbiter, visit the P5-A website at www.amsat-dl.org/p5a

Click Here To Return To Previous Page