[amsat-bb] Re: Satellite Satire

[Diane Bruce]

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
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