AMSAT GO-Mars/P5A, Amateur radio Mars orbiter Options

[JTN]

This has been on my radar for a couple of years, and I've been meaning to ask about it. Gets to Mars by tricky Moon-flyby trajectory (which compensates for non-optimal piggyback launch). Payload includes radio stuff (duh) and camera(s), and various proposals for things like Cubesats and maybe a balloon(!) to ride along.

http://www.go-mars.org/ (German)
http://ticket-to-mars.org/ (million-dollar-homepage-like donation site)
http://www.amsat-dl.org/p5a/

Surprised I haven't seen much mention of it here; this post in 2006 is the only reference I can find.

These guys have successfully built and launched Earth-orbiting satellites, and received signals from interplanetary craft, so their proposal is unusually credible. However, I haven't found much detail on the above websites; in particular, I haven't worked out how they're doing MOI -- I'm not a rocket scientist but that feels orders of magnitude from the propulsion systems they've proven in Earth orbit.

In particular, I don't see status updates. There are pictures of hardware, and recent news items on the website, but nothing indicating that they're gearing up for launch soon (I've had 2009 pencilled in for a couple of years, although I don't recall my source for that; ticket-to-mars.org currently says "it should begin its nine-month journey during launch windows in 2009 or 2011"). A few dates on the website are now in the past, e.g. "late 2007" for launch of P3E, an Earth orbiter which is to test some of the technology.

Anyone know more about the progress of this interesting project?

[dh2va]

We are currently talking to possible sponsors (federal and commercial) as the main doorstopper right now is the money. Technology-wise, propulsion is under control, as the AO-40 motor was capable of delivering enough delta-v with a slight increase of fuel mass (problem with AO-40 is understood). Communications is well under control as our multiple receptions of Voyager 1 demonstrate. A phase-coherent transponder for precise navigation will fly on P3-E, planned for next year. As soon as the money is there we can start serious design and metal-bashing as many parts are replicas of the AO-40 spacecraft. Of course things like thermal design and attitude control will be different from AO-40, but nothing special.

Things will heat up considerably once the budget is secured.. stay tuned.

Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA
AMSAT-DL P5-A project leader

[hendric]

Achim,
Thanks for dropping by. I might be able to buy a few pixels for us bozos on UMSF, if Doug doesn't mind. What are your plans for data releases?

[imipak]

I tried to, but the SSL cert was expired.