Second Life for Failed Russian Satellite?, Science Magazine
“Sixteen hours of continuous broadband coverage would certainly be a big boost, particularly for scientists working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which currently gets just a few hours a day of coverage. And while the South Pole Station’s communications problems are the most acute, communications for the entire continent have been a problem for many years. Wingo describes it as a cyclical problem: The small Antarctic community “doesn’t have sufficient market potential to justify the construction of a $150 to $200 million dedicated satellite to cover the area,” he says–but once such a satellite is in place, there will be “an explosion of demand that would prove the market.” Bringing in Express-AM4, he suggests, would be the necessary band-aid.”
– Express-AM4: Repurposing Space Assets For Exploration, previous post
– Saving Express-AM4 and Using it to Serve Antarctic Research, previous post
