On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 11:40:44AM +0000, Gordon JC Pearce wrote: > On 30/11/11 01:46, Andy Kellner wrote: > >Hmm, unlikely I would say: > > > >A typical WX ballon goes up to about 30 km, maybe 50 km if you get a high > >performance one. > > You know, from 50km up you can see a fair chunk of the earth. While it > might not be as cool as flying a satellite, a balloon-lofted repeater > could be quite good fun. What next, though? Well, maybe a UAV-lofted > repeater. I wonder how well a combination of a balloon for the heavy > lifting with a UAV-based payload for station-keeping would work?
Gordon knows as well as I do, (Hi Gordon!) the military have been doing this for years. The commercial companies have been exploring this as well for some uses, why not amateurs? (Do a quick websearch for communications blimps) Using model aircraft electric motors and solar cells it might be possible to build something that would stay up a few months at a time that might be within reach for a club. Anyone here run the numbers already? I wonder what the civian aviation regs would be like too. ;-) > > -- > Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ - 73 Diane VA3DB -- - d...@freebsd.org d...@db.net http://www.db.net/~db Why leave money to our children if we don't leave them the Earth? _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
