DailyDirt: High-Flying Balloons FTW!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Before the Wright brothers and planes, people had actually flown in hot air balloons as early as 1783. Those early balloons didn’t travel that far — just a few miles or a couple dozen miles if the balloons were filled with hydrogen. Blimps (aka airships) were somewhat common in the early 1900s, but obviously that mode of transportation didn’t really stick around after the spectacular demise of the Hindenburg. Perhaps we’re due for a comeback for more advanced balloons now?
- World View’s commercial balloon rides at high altitude are a relatively cheap way to get close to the edge of space. They’ve successfully tested the first parafoil at stratospheric heights, and this near-space vehicle will also carry scientific equipment for unmanned missions to the upper atmosphere. [url]
- NASA is developing scientific “super-pressure” helium balloons that can last for months in the upper atmosphere. It’s not easy to keep a balloon aloft for that long, but NASA is still working on it to float telescopes above the clouds without an expensive rocket launch. [url]
- The BLAST telescope was designed to hang from a high altitude balloon, and it’s successfully gathered data on star formation. Unfortunately, the telescope was badly damaged in one of its landings, but it was repaired to fly again in 2010 for 9 days. [url]
- Google’s (or Alphabet’s) Project Loon has balloons that can fly for well over 100 days — and some have even lasted over 200 days. These balloons need to survive high altitudes and cold temperatures, and hopefully they’ll start to deliver reliable wireless broadband internet soon. [url]
After you’ve finished checking out those links, check out this holiday gift guide for some awesome deals at the Techdirt deals store.
Filed Under: airships, balloons, blast telescope, leo, parafoil, project loon
Companies: google, nasa, world view
Comments on “DailyDirt: High-Flying Balloons FTW!”
aerogels?
how about filling an aeorgel with hydrogen to create a safer balloon/blimp?
Re: aerogels?
According to video of very confused people in the middle east from a few years ago, you are way too late with this suggestion. Think oddly substantive clouds.
>Perhaps we’re due for a comeback for more advanced balloons now?
Don’t worry, your tax dollars are on it!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/29/us-usa-military-blimp-idUSKCN0SM2F920151029
Zeppelins Are Not Blimps
For conflating the two, your punishment is to visit TV Tropes and then spend the rest of the day trying to return to normal work.
Really Advanced
Use something like the Mirasol tech from Qualcomm in transparent skin blimps to concentrate sunlight in heat sinks during the day. At night you use this stored heat to maintain temp and pressure at the desired levels. If you can set the angles to trap the heat internally, the whole thing becomes even more useful.
Still Flying
Huh, nice to see some links to BLAST on Techdirt! We’ve upgraded our systems are are looking at another flight next year. We’re at a 30 day flight with over 2,000 pixels this time.