UA Engineers Procure Satellite Lab
by January 5, 2004 12:00 am 74 views
Bob Friedman, Genesis’ director, and Neil Schmidt, the former dean of the UA College of Engineering, have helped procure $2 million worth of satellite equipment to start the Electrical Engineering Department’s UA Satellite Communications Lab.
Friedman said an Arkansas businessman facilitated the deal so that it only cost the UA $100,000. He declined to name the benefactor. But the equipment includes uplink and downlink capabilities that will enable the UA to transmit and receive super-high-speed broadcasts to 25 colleges throughout the state. Distance and graduate-level programs will likely be the main use.
Negotiations with SES Americom of Princeton, N.J., to use one of its 16 geosynchronous satellites and Friedman’s Virtual Satellite Corp. technology for the transmissions are in the works.
VSC, started in 2001 with $3 million from 16 local angel investors, uses proprietary technology to combine unused transponders on geostationary satellites and thereby create higher power “virtual” satellites. Friedman’s goal is to put the equivalent of additional “birds” in the sky without incurring the $300 million cost of launching a satellite.