questions about ARGOS

[sanmichele]

Looking at the MIT online courses I have seen that about the engineering of the satellites and particularly the lesson on the project Adaptive Reconnaisance Golay-3 Satellite (ARGOS) that can be read in http:/ / ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Aeronautics-and-Astronautics/16-851Fall2003/7070B6C0-669C-4E17-88C0-F502433B3759/0/l8_optics_3.pdf. I ignore if has been object of discussion in this forum, however it is a telescope built in the laboratories of the MIT but thought as spatial telescope (a description is also found in http:/ / strategic.mit.edu/PDF_archive/2%20Refereed%20Journal/2_5_SPIE_OE_Argos.pdf) realized with three telescopes of the type used by the amateur astronomers s that work using the technique of the interference succeeding in reaching a resolution of 0.35 seconds of arc. What has struck me has been the total cost, not even 10000 $ ( less than the win of an Italian lottery of ! ) Also increased of a factor 10, to keep in mind of the difference among the model to Earth and that running in the space, it is a figure that divided by 1700 (affiliate number to the Italian amateur astronomers associations UAI) it does few more than 400 $, less than a PC.. In short by a collection, and found the collaboration of a corporate body taking care of the putting into orbit, an amateur astronomers association could have a space telescope by which to do, for example, search of transits of exstrasolar planets or observations in UV and IR. I wonder me and I ask you: does it result you that any associations are interested? do you know what it is happened to the project after the 2003 year when the lesson has been written? do analogous projects exist?