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Unmanned Aerial Telecom Relays

Posted by michael on from the it's-a-bird-it's-a-plane dept.

Brussel writes "SkyTower in collaboration with the Japan Ministry of Telecommunications (CRL/TAO) and NASA has successfully completed a series of commercial telecommunications tests -- the world's first from more than 60,000 feet in the stratosphere. The tests, which began three weeks ago, were conducted from Pathfinder-Plus, an unmanned solar-electric aircraft developed by AeroVironment." There's another press release here.

1 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Weather effects by SgtChaireBourne · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Since these are supposed to be up there 24/7, it does look like they'd churn the atmosphere a bit. What these don't do in magnitude they make up for in duration. What kind of effect would this have on weather, especially at that altitude?

    Could these platforms be mounted with catalysts to remove chemical pollutants?

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