Slashdot Mirror

There may be more than one company, but the one I ran across years ago
was 21st century airships.

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/HighAlt

At 65,000 ft there is no wind.

With almost the same controls as used for RC planes one person
could launch or land a stratollite for repairs or upgrades.

With this lower version of the satellite you could use less power
and get less interference.

You cover less area, but the costs of launch are so much lower
it makes it well worth it and even more if the balloon has multiple
ppl hanging their gear off it.

As cheap as they are they could even have one on standby in a region
for rapid deployment in case one gets in trouble.

Sometimes Low Tech beats High Tech, pun intended.

These are worthy of mention...

The Aquanator captures power for underwater currents.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/26/1096137100758.html?oneclick=true

The Florida current has 30 times the flow of all rivers
of the World.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_stream#Possible_renewable_power_source

The Antarctic current has 135 times the flow of all the
rivers of the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Circumpolar_Current

There are a lot of other underwater currents around the world.

This next idea has been more about how to do it vs. practicality.

I think the undersea currents are the best direction at present.

But for those who like to think on the fringe...

Some ppl have found out that 1% of the jet stream world wide
would replace all forms of fuel and power around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream#Future_power_generation

No one has figured out a sure way to capture the power.

But I think I have an idea how to do it.

Cables from the extreme height to the ground in a 100+ mph wind
are going to be subject to terrible sheer forces.

Microwave loses power over distance geometrically.

With the high altitude aerodynamic balloon you can ease into
the high winds like jet liners do now to cut down on long
flight times.

A large Zeppelin like the prior planned Cargo-lifter, but
designed for higher altitude flight like planned by
21st century airships, and fuelless flight.

Cargolifter 160 tonne capacity planned Zeppelin: ( out of business )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargolifter

The fuelless flight idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKltbQ8PBQ

21st century airships ( Strato-lites - High Altitude Balloons )

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/HighAlt

21st century plans a balloon that will reach 67,000 ft
above all the wind and can act as a low cost satellite for telecom.

The jet stream is around 25,000 ft up.

Imagine these ideas as a hybrid where it can move into the
Jet Stream, and capture power via Super Capacitiors or in
some other extreme dense power storage method.

Then it glides to the ground once full of stored energy
in what ever form is most efficient and xfers it.

If two were connected like in the Fuelless flight idea,
it would have a Cargo capacity of near 320 tonnes.

The extreme cold at that height might also make
super conductors viable.

It is a wild and expensive idea, but it could be tested
small scale with a smaller model with long range remote controls
like 21st century has planned for their unmanned balloons.

A manned flight to 132,000 ft. is in the works right now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jul/11/spaceexploration.sciencenews

So 25,000 ft. unmanned is quite doable.

Use the new cheap printable solar cells, and for almost infinite
battery life use super capacitors instead.

The super cap would cost more, but they have like a million cycle life.

Assuming 1 cycle per day, It could last in theory, 3,000 yrs.

Nanosolar which is invested in by google:

http://www.nanosolar.com/history.htm

UltraCapacitors at present:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultracapacitor

High Altitude Balloons for Relayers:

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/HighAlt

The 65,000 ft. variety is still in development but would
accelerate with some external research stimuli.

Teledesic once planned to cover the world in Low Earth Orbit ( LEO )
satellites, but it fell apart and millions were wasted.

A more practical solution is a remote control balloon that
can be flown via simple cheap remote control like RC planes
with just a mild booster to get it up over 10 miles high.

It could be landed for repairs, upgrades, etc etc.

Geosync satellites are expensive, and due to their distance out
add in latency to the data, 13 miles vs. 22,000 miles does make a difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_satellite

Also at 65,000 ft. there is no wind, so once you make it up there
you just hang out in one spot.

It is nice and cold up there so the electronics can be stored in
a insulated container, and cool air can cycle thru as needed,
or perhaps passive cooling would be fine if done right.

The hard part will be rural coverage.

Maybe....maybe not....

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/HighAlt

You bridge a private network to the public network similar to a NAT intranet.

You use IPv6 for your private, and use number space outside the IPv4 range.

So you can still get routable IP's, but outside the core US IPv4 number range.

For DNS you use http://www.orsn.org/ or you setup your own if you like.

You can run two sets of DNS, the non-US monopolized one, and the US one.

I am sure some technical difficulties would still be incurred, but this
would knock out some of the bigger ones other than getting a lot of ppl
to run open mesh worldwide and bridging those big dark gaps where no one lives.

The physical transmission to all ppl worldwide will require something like this
sponsored in a manner similar to a coop I am thinking :

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/

High altitude ballons that act as comm platforms, and if they had solar cells
they could be powered by the sun during daylight, and super caps or batteries
while it is dark.

Satellites have latency issues at geosync orbit, at only 14 miles up, the
high altitiude comm ballons have low latency and act as super tall transmission towers.

They can be setup and taken down by one man with a small truck.

They cost a great deal less than a tower or a satellite.

They fly above the weather and the wind.

It is dead still up there, and cold as hell so you could consider super conductors as well.

But as I said before, it doesnt solve all the problems, and it isnt free to
deploy all this, but if many ppl around the world funded this idea as
a group coop we could supplant the billion dollar money machine telecos
with a vast array of wireless ballons transmitting in many different frequencies.

I think they would do a great deal to stop it though.

Peace,

Ex-MislTech

Yeah, Zero G can be a boon and a bane, it has positive and negative aspects.

I think building a spacedock at La Grange point L1 is the best idea, and a moonbase to get most of the materials for the spacedock, and intrastellar craft.

Also satellites built and launched from the spacedock/moonbase would have a lower cost to put in high earth geosynch orbit.

Although Stratallites are probably and even cheaper and easier to maintain scenario vs. satellites. http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/AirshipFAQ

I would consider putting most of the moonbase far underground as it would give it some defense against meteor/asteroid impact and most radiation.

o2 could be acquired from lunar soil as part of the helium-3 mining process, saving hauling it to orbit.

Storing the fuel would be best done in multiple cylinders/containers so if you have failure it does not compromise your entire fuel supply, ie. redundancy.

Meteorite impacts on a fuel cylinder would be very bad, and some kind or defense protection against this would be needed .

A deflection system or decceleration system, like armor or layered airbags or combination of both. Layered airbags to slow it some, armor to deal with remaining inertia.

Multiple fueling stations intead of one to avoid the single point of failure scenario.

Like 8 arms on a spider coming out from the central hub of the spacedock.

Integrate with the spacedock on the outer reaches of something similar to piers like ships dock with on earth. Long tunnels connecting to the main spacedock, and if there is an accident at worst the tunnel and fuel pod is lost vs. the entire station. Multiple airlocks in tunnel protect the spacedock from most explosions.

The fuel pods could be attached on the end of the tunnel offset from where it would connect to the door of the docking crafts.

Ships could be brought inside the spacedock as well, but it would be preferred they leave their explosive fuel outside the spacedock in the independent fuel pods.

Getting water up into space could be done by magnetic coil launcher mass drivers tossing canisters of it into low orbit, and then have some kind of craft ferry it from low orbit to the la grange points near the moon wear the spacedock would have a long term stable orbit .

Water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis or other methods such as the extreme heat method recently discovered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy#High -temperature_electrolysis_.28HTC.29

A passive parabolic reflector on the moon or in space could achieve extreme heat at its focal point, and high temperature on the moon reaches over 120 celsius.

With a focused reflector temperatures much higher than achieved at the solar collector in france could be achieved.

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2004-07/10908 57033.Ph.r.html

With power near 12 million watts per cu cm inside the earth's atmosphere, it would be impressive what could be achieved outside it.

The moon would most likely be the easier place to build the series of reflecting mirrors and the tracking control system could be mostly underground to shield it from surface impacts.

With virtually unlimited solar power to process lunar soil and water sent their via mass drivers from earth, it would be a safe underground compartmentalized and redundant facility if built that way.

Ex-MislTech

Pin point balloon placement at high altitiude is being done by these guys at
altitudes over 60,000 ft .

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/

As to the recoil of the mass driver, yes your right, it would be difficult to
compensate for , but ships at sea compensate for pitch and roll for radar guidance
system at ranges out past 300 miles with cross roll gyros .

I used to work on those gyro systems, while a simplified verison of what would be
needed it is in the same vein .

These guys. with some mods to their idea, might haul ur cargo to the platform :

http://www.fuellessflight.com/

As to who would work up there, your right no one would dare climb on board a million
gallons of liquid hydrogen and light the candle as some ppl put it . (Apollo/Shuttle missions)

I mean what fool jumps out of a perfectly good airplane too ???

Also the platform could receive a "cartridge" for launch from a delivery vessel, the
platform could be operated remotely from earth with little or no crew .

I didn't say it would be easy either. I also posed it as a question as to I wonder
how much easier would it be to get to Low Orbit with something like that .

Ex-MislTech

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/AirshipFAQ

You can also land them via remote control, and fix anything that goes wrong with a
one man crew in a farmer's field if u wanted to .

NASA's altitude record for a ballon stands at 171,000 ft I believe .

In the Stratosphere there is no wind, so the balloon being blown around is not an issue .

Ex-MislTech

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/

Giant airships was just so much cooler, it's sad they have gone bankrupt.

Maybe we'll see some new uses for these neat spherical blimps sometime soon.

When i first read this, i was like "WOW" and "About time!" Imagine Data, VoIP, as well as IPTV!! I had to find out more!!!!!

Went to thier web site and read the little info they had there. Intriuged, i sought out more info...

Seems "rigid" airships can only operate to about 1500 feet or so...

Seems the current altitude record for "non-rigid" airships is 20,452 ft....

Seems several other compainies have annouced similar "plans" (usually coinciding with some sort of financial event)...

Try this site http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/HighAlt/ for some sobering info on high altitude airships.

GTEL is selling a plan to operating a rigid air ship at an altitude 40 times that of typical airships and 3x the altitude record of a small non-rigid airship. There going to do on a revenue basis that which has never been done in over a hundred years of airship operations AND do it for more than a year at a time?

otcbb:GTEL? Sounds alot like otcbb:SCAM to me

sorry to have to burst the bubble, err, ah, airship

How about a clickable link?

another Canuck

21st Century Airships is trying to do something similar. They even have some impressive pictures on their website:

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/images/hokTimHi gh.jpg
http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/images/viewFron t.jpg

21st Century Airships is trying to do something similar. They even have some impressive pictures on their website:

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/images/hokTimHi gh.jpg
http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/images/viewFron t.jpg

21st Century Airships is trying to do something similar. They even have some impressive pictures on their website:

http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/images/hokTimHi gh.jpg
http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/images/viewFron t.jpg

• 21st Century Airships
• Yahoo (German, Translated)
• www.telekom-presse.de (translated)

If you look on the web site of the manufacturer you can find this picture where it is clear that those things on the side of the sphere are combination propeller/stearing vane modules.

BTW does anyone else think that the picture on their front page makes the thing look like the Death Star (tm) :)

If you look on the web site of the manufacturer you can find this picture where it is clear that those things on the side of the sphere are combination propeller/stearing vane modules.

BTW does anyone else think that the picture on their front page makes the thing look like the Death Star (tm) :)

Yes, but their webpage is pretty short on details.

In the irony dept, Newmarket is north of Toronto, up Highway .. 404.

Here are some pictures of the airships.

Although I hesitate due to the high liklihood of it being Slashdotted, the company's homepage has a pretty cool picture of the device in question. While the most of the comm gear is hidden within, you can see some antennae's and solar panels on the side. The rest of the site has lots of other interesting pics, but like the article is unfortunately very short of any tech detail. :-/