Going wireless, parachute included

By Thursday February 21, 2008

Space Data pays a $100 bounty for the return of each transceiver package parachuted back to Earth.

Thanks, Helen



14 Comments
  1. jbenson2 says:
    2/21/2008 at 9:53 am

    So they stay in place for just 24 hours and then pop and fall back to earth?

    Just think how many they have to launch every year?

    Talk about a litter and trash problem!

  2. Steve-O says:
    2/21/2008 at 9:54 am

    I’ve always wondered about launching balloons like this. What about air traffic? I’m sure it wouldn’t take down a Boeing 747 but maybe a Cessna.

    Looks like a good idea though other than that.

  3. jbenson2 says:
    2/21/2008 at 9:54 am

    Jeeze Louise! Further into the article is the comment that 1,800 weather balloons are launched world-wide every day without problems.

  4. Les says:
    2/21/2008 at 9:56 am

    Robert Charles Wilson used this in his Hugo award winning novel “Spin.”

  5. Phillep says:
    2/21/2008 at 10:42 am

    The article commenting about dairy farmers being reliable employees reminds me of working for a start up company once. We started comparing notes and every single person in a responsible position had either been a farmer (one person) or had raised marijuana (the rest of us). Most of us had also brewed our own beer/wine.

    Very few of the rest of the crew had done either, and none of them were responsible enough to handle anything without supervision.

  6. The Monster's Lawyer says:
    2/21/2008 at 10:57 am

    I would think that solar powered UAVs would be more economic and controlable than balloons. I could imagine a UAV with a loiter program being powered by the sun lasting much longer than a balloon.

  7. MrBloedumpSpladderschitt says:
    2/21/2008 at 12:17 pm

    Balloons, UAVs, use it all. Add in a ground infrastructure put together by Nepal Wireless ( http://www.nepalwireless.net/photos.php ). Let’s get ‘er done…

  8. Phillep says:
    2/21/2008 at 12:35 pm

    #6, That route would be more controllable, but it might be a couple of years for the cost to come down.

    #7, Thanks for the link. We can use something like that in the Alaska interior.

    Alaska is pretty 3rd world thanks to the fedgov sitting on the resources and blocking all road building. (Stupid condo-conservationists.)

  9. the answer says:
    2/21/2008 at 12:36 pm

    So when it falls back down, and clunks someone in the head we’ll know who to blame.

  10. BertDawg says:
    2/21/2008 at 12:42 pm

    I’m sure someone out there can tell me why they couldn’t simply tether them to lower the consumption figures.

  11. MrBloedumpSpladderschitt says:
    2/21/2008 at 2:12 pm

    #8 – Hope someone does do something like that in AK. Proves that if you’re not obsessed with 5 9’s of uptime, etc. you don’t need to break the bank to get remote areas online.

  12. Joey B says:
    2/21/2008 at 5:54 pm

    Why don’t they just tie the balloon to the ground so it doesnt drift and is easily recoverable?

  13. MrBloedumpSpladderschitt says:
    2/22/2008 at 4:14 am

    #12 – Read the article. To get coverage the balloons need to be high: 65000-100000 feet. Well above commercial flight paths.

  14. Phillep says:
    2/22/2008 at 8:34 am

    #12, you’ve never flown a kite? Lay out enough and the string goes more “out” than “up”.

    #11, a hundred miles of flat tundra and no cash income? There’s a program to get the schools linked, I don’t know what the present status is.


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