2002-10-15T22:14:25ZFluxBBhttps://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1563The german Mars Society is planning a balloon mission that could fly piggy pack on an amateur satellite (see AMSAT germany) that is launched as additional paylod on an Ariane 5.
The AMSAT approach seams to be reasonble because it is based on an flight proven design. The mars ballon on the other hand is a complete other thing because it includes many firsts and is severely restricted by the available mass.
]]>https://newmars.com/forums/profile.php?id=3132002-10-15T22:14:25Zhttps://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=6325#p6325I read some commentary about this somewhere, maybe on Slashdot. Anyway, it's only amateur in the sense that amateur radio is amateur - it's a term that denotes that they're not professionals being paid to do the job. So in the same way, you could say that the Mars Society is an amateur organization, which nevertheless is filled with PhDs, professors, scientists, experts and the like.]]>https://newmars.com/forums/profile.php?id=32002-08-26T10:08:40Zhttps://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=4539#p4539An amatuer satellite organization is planning to launch a satellite to Mars sometime between 2007 and 2009 on an Ariane 5 rocket (it'll piggyback.) I don't know the technical details of the satellite or what its primary functions are suppose to be since I didn't read the .pdf file but I was surprised that there was even an amateur satellite organization! Here's the link.]]>https://newmars.com/forums/profile.php?id=682002-08-26T00:07:59Zhttps://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=4531#p4531