3rd Attempt At Lunar Mission 26 March 2004
The last few months there has been an ongoing program to send
a small payload
to the moon without the requirement of an exact timetable for
cash revenue. That
means you test everything and see what opportunity develops.
The last time that
was tried was 1994. An accident that year cancelled that
"reckless" behavior.
Now a stream of research and testing is ongoing to be
"reckless" again. The
launch system of 1994 and 2002 had a large indoor guidance and
tracking
subsystem. The new long range tracking and guidance will be
portable, 100 times
smaller size, lower weight and power. The complete new launch
system will fit
into 2 shopping bags and weigh total less than 20 pounds. The
advantage is
being at the ocean where the radio environment has a lot less
noise. The
disadvantage is the need to have over 100 times better
performance. Major
improvements in antenna and signal processing invention and
design have been
developed over the last half year.
When the indoor development is finished, testing will go
outdoors. There has
been a great deal to learn and experiment with.