Editing AMSAT (section)

== History ==
AMSAT was founded in 1969 in Washington, D.C. to continue the efforts begun by [[OSCAR|Project OSCAR]]. Its first project was to coordinate the launch of [[Australis-OSCAR 5|OSCAR 5]], constructed by students at the [[University of Melbourne]].<ref name="HIST">{{cite web|url=http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/amsat_history.php|title=Space Satellites from the World's Garage – The Story of AMSAT |publisher=AMSAT|access-date=December 19, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005160332/http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/amsat_history.php|archive-date=October 5, 2006}}</ref> Some design modifications were needed and were made by AMSAT members, and the satellite was successfully launched on 30 January 1970, on a [[NASA]] [[Delta (rocket family)|Thor Delta]] launch vehicle.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Radio Amateur's Satellite Handbook|publisher=The Amateur Radio Relay League|pages=1–13|author=Martin Davidoff, K2UBC|year=2000|isbn=0-87259-658-3}}</ref>

AMSAT's next launch was [[AMSAT-OSCAR 6]] (AO-6) on 15 October 1972. AO-6 was AMSAT's first long-life satellite, and was built with participants from Australia and West Germany. Command stations in [[Australia]], [[Canada]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Hungary]], [[Morocco]], [[New Zealand]], the [[United States]] and [[West Germany]] controlled the satellite, contributing greatly to its 4.5 years of service.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Radio Amateur's Satellite Handbook|publisher=The Amateur Radio Relay League|pages=1–15–1–16|author=Martin Davidoff, K2UBC|year=2000|isbn=0-87259-658-3}}</ref> Further launches continued to emphasize international cooperation, with [[AMSAT-OSCAR 7]] (AO-7) launching with a new transponder developed and built by Karl Meinzer and AMSAT Germany (AMSAT-DL). AMSAT Japan (JAMSAT) contributed a transponder to [[AMSAT-OSCAR 8]] (AO-8).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Radio Amateur's Satellite Handbook|publisher=The Amateur Radio Relay League|pages=1–16–1–18|author=Martin Davidoff, K2UBC
|year=2000|isbn=0-87259-658-3}}</ref>

In order to launch its satellites, AMSAT has worked with space agencies and commercial launch contractors to develop new ways to take advantage of unused areas of launch vehicles. In return, AMSAT sometimes can negotiate a reduction or waiver of launch costs. One of the most significant is the Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP), developed and manufactured in partnership with the [[European Space Agency]] (ESA) in 1990 for use on its [[Ariane 4]] [[launch vehicle]]. AMSAT was again able to take advantage of unused space with the launch of [[AO-40|AMSAT-OSCAR 40]] (AO-40), occupying unused space on an [[Ariane 5]].<ref name="HIST"/>

=== IPS ===
The IPS (Interpreter for Process Structures) programming language was specifically written for the [[RCA 1802]] AMSAT Phase III satellite.<ref>{{cite journal|title=IPS, An Unorthodox High Level Language
|author=Karl Meinzer|journal=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]]|date=January 1979}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=IPS Programming|publisher=AMSAT|year=2002|author1=James Miller, G3RUH|author2=Paul Willmott, VP9MU|author3=Stacey Mills, W4SM|url=http://www.amsat.org/amsat/projects/ips/|access-date=2012-04-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229195505/http://www.amsat.org/amsat/projects/ips/|archive-date=2012-02-29}}</ref>

The IPS [[threaded code]] language, developed for AMSAT Phase III, is the first known use of a high-level language on board a spacecraft.<ref>Jan King "The Third Generation" [http://www.ka9q.net/AMSAT-ORBIT-3.pdf "Orbit" September 1980] p. 15</ref>

Another 16-bit IPS implementation was specifically developed to run on the ARM CPU in the IHU-2 on the AMSAT P3D.<ref>Chuck Green; Peter Gülzow; Lyle Johnson; Karl Meinzer; James Miller [https://www.amsat.org/articles/g3ruh/124.html "The Experimental IHU-2 Aboard P3D"] 1999</ref>

A 32-bit IPS implementation has been developed for the AMSAT P3E satellite and the AMSAT P5A mission to [[Mars]], which also have ARM CPUs. Emulators for both the classic 16-bit and the 32-bit IPS language and development environment are available for many other systems.<ref>[http://www.amsat-bda.org/IPS_Home.html "IPS Project Home Page"]</ref><ref>[http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/amsat.html "COSMAC 1802 on AMSATs running IPS"]</ref><ref>[http://www.jrmiller.demon.co.uk/products/ipsbk.html "IPS - High Level Programming of Small Systems"]</ref><ref>[https://amsat-dl.org/en/ips-high-level-programming-of-small-systems-for-the-amsat-space-projects/ "IPS - High Level Programming of Small Systems for the AMSAT space projects"]</ref>