Table 3 summarizes system capabilities based on our contacts with a variety of vendors. The HRPT systems range in cost from $100,000 to $200,000. The low-priced vendor is one that is known to supply hardware to other vendors. Some of the higher-priced vendors offer more sophisticated software, making use of more up-to-date hardware, workstations, and software and the UNIX operating system. The APT systems are all relatively inexpensive. The decision to acquire one of these would be based more on the choice of computer system on which it is based.
Most of the companies providing HRPT systems are relatively small. When the firm is contacted, one is quite likely to end up speaking to the president of the company. All the firms have made it clear they would be delighted to offer ARM whatever assistance they can.
NASA Ames acquired a satellite system for downlink and display of POES and GOES satellite data. The NASA Ames system will be portable and capable of withstanding harsh environments, since they do field work in the Antarctic among other places.
The successful bidder, SeaSpace, which was one of the vendors we had contacted, is providing NASA Ames with three Sun-4/65 SPARC Station 1s. One station will handle the POES data, the second the GOES; the third will be used for visualization.
NASA Ames will be involved in a field experiment in Bangor, Maine, in September 1991 and hopes to be using the stations. The shipboard system that SeaSpace is working on is being built to be used in the TOGA COARE region.