The ARISS-Europe team is working to establish L-band and S-band antennas on the Columbus module, which will be added to the International Space Station.
From the ARISS-Europe web site:
With the Columbus module being located at some considerable distance from the other two ARISS stations, this will permit parallel operations on the new bands at the same time as the existing operations. The availability of these new frequencies will enable us to establish wideband and video operations for the first time. This facility will provide ATV facilities for School contacts and, additionally, continuous transponder operation.
The only problem is that ARISS-Europe still needs additional funds to pay for the antennas. They are asking for donations from radio amateurs worldwide. See http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm Time is running out, so if you can donate to this cause, do it now.
73, Bob K0NR
The manned space program is completely gilded. $200 worth of antennas will cost $150,000US to have them installed. I suppose we can assume that some of those $6000 Pentagon hammers will be used in the installation?
It would be wonderful to have the new antennas and video capability, but these kinds of costs for simple components make manned space travel and ham radio in space untenable.
73 de Jeff
Jeff,
Good point…this project is very expensive.
Of course, I don’t suppose they can just ducttape a Cushcraft antenna on the outside of the space station.
73, Bob K0NR
True enough! 🙂
It sure would be nice though if instead of hams donating $150,000 for two tiny antennas they would donate that money to AMSAT-NA or DL for P3E or Eagle.
73 de Jeff