BARTLETT RADIO ASTRONOMY INSTITUTE
The Bartlett Earth Station was built in the 1970's by ComSat Corporation. As one of the
first large satellite systems this station was required to be extremely large. The immense
size of the hub earth station was necessary to overcome not only the losses through 22,000
miles of space, but also because technology had not advanced in the areas of low noise
amplifier designs, and spacecraft power budgets. Systems of this size are no longer
required for satellite communications, so its owner, AT&T decided to decommission the
facility for this reason, among others.
The earth station, however, has great value as a radio astronomy facility due to its
immense antenna aperture. It has been maintained in AT&T's thorough fashion and could
economically be converted to a radio astronomy facility.
I propose to establish the non-profit Bartlett Radio Astronomy Institute and work to obtain
public funds to purchase, convert and operate this facility in the interest of science
and benefit to Alaska.
A one page information paper on this subject is available here:
BartlettInfo
The mission of the Bartlett Radio Astronomy Institute is multifaceted and is detailed
further on this link in a draft mission outline.
Considerable detail about the condition of the Bartlett Earth Station is shown in the following link.
Bartlett survey
A detailed business plan and proposal is currently being drafted.
For further information contact Mike Melum at 907-345-6999