Back to the Moon: NASA seeks small payloads for lunar mission https://www.rt.com/usa/365014-nasa-moon-exploration-payloads/
They might not approve one, that idea was going long before Apollo program began, but it would be nice to have a transponder with enough bandwidth to accommodate a number of stations at one time, Plus will it be solar or powered by a thermoelectric generator using uranium or Plutonium to heat the thermopile for electrical power or solar? I doubt they'd use any radioactive material since I think they had a Snap 27 Thermoelectric generator, on a number of Apollo flights for experiments mainly to power them. If we all Was amazed to read elsewhere the cask of plutonium used to power it and also that is was in a protective cask that survived the reentry but lies I think in the Tonga Trench, thing it said there was 3.7 kg of it on the LEM, Aquarius and also the command module, but since it got back intacvt the cask holding the Plutonium was never in danger of burning up. Sorry for the OT part, but I agree but perhaps it could be powered by a sun heated thermoelectric unit with solar as well. I'd love to see one with a camera real time or SSTV perhaps but power limitations for viewing the moon as well but every gram of weight adds up and fuel is more to get it there. One can hope anyway But getting used to the delay might be challenging for some who've never heard moonbounce signals 73 to all, Michelle
If not actually on the surface of the moon, maybe an alternative would be a satellite in lunar orbit. Tom WA4ILH
Hey, here ya go, http://www.arrl.org/news/china-plans-lunar-orbiting-amateur-radio-satellites Sadly, another example of America now trailing the pack ....
Not at all. AMSAT North America is actively participating with Ragnarok Industries in the NASA Cube Quest Challenge. See here: http://www.arrl.org/news/lunar-orbi...e-could-result-from-nasa-cube-quest-challenge I would note that the planned Chinese satellites do not include two-way transponder capability, while this one would.
BTW, love the name Heimdallr too! A Nordic myth whose powers of long range (DX) perception are illustrated as well in the popular Marvel film Thor.
That would be awesome! I think for the sake of science we should also attempt to land one on the moon, as well as put one in orbit that is. 73, AD5KO
Yes to bounce a laser beam, to measure the distance accurately. Think it worked. TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo
Laser Ranging Retroreflector http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/experiments/lrr/
Apollo 11, 14, 15; LASER retroflector. still in use occasionally. I don't know the numbers, I wonder if the power and columnation is within grasp of radio amateurs? meanwhile, there is always EME on every band from 6m through microwave (24GHz!!)
You're probably thinking of the laser reflectors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment Which makes me wonder why hams haven't tried using them too (like the Project Echo sats ).
