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Airships Tested As Two-Way Telecom Beacons

Posted by timothy on from the bouncing-around dept.

sgups writes "The Toronto Star (no registration required:)) is reporting about this firm which will supply spherical airships that will be used as high-flying telecommunications platforms to supply two-way Internet access across the United States and into Mexico and Canada. The article explains little of the technology though."

5 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Cool! by Miroku · · Score: 4, Interesting

    High speed internet access for those of us who live out in the woods would be great, since sattelite is incredibly expensive...

    As long as they don't get shot down as UFO's....

    --
    ~The Incredible Xan~
    "Saying that men can't be lesbians is gender discrimination."
  2. Very Cool, especially for rural areas. by Ashetos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What about the same solution as an alternative to Cell Phone towers?

  3. Nasa has a better idea by UrGeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Projects/Pathfinder/

    or search for "Nasa solar-powered Pathfinder" in your favorite search engine.

    This is a solar-powered drone that eventually will fly 24 hours (carrying batteries for night).

  4. interesting tangent by zogger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    --I've seen several slashdot threads now on starting your own business, moaning about the company you are in, etc. The two recent were the tech trends thread and the hilarious wobbly headed CEO doll "bonus". Anyway, I found the most fascinating thing in the article was that, to the owner, balloons were just fun! That's how he got into it, doing what he thought was fun and cool! Fun can translate into enthusiasm which leads to making some radical but maybe cool decisions. More power to the guy, and hope he figures out how to keep them in place! And is this a new job title, certified stratonaut network administrator*? CSNA* What a job!

    *copylefted, have fun!

  5. Old Hat by A+non+moose+cow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oil field trash from Africa's equitorial west coast might remember this being done over 20 years ago (by Conoco? I can't remember). The company needed communications into the jungle, and the anchored dirgibles solved two problems...

    1. They didn't have to cut a path for wires
    2. They could avoid the natives stealing the wire.

    The problem came in the first monsoon season when , although very heavily anchored, the coastal one was blown hard enough to snap the dirgible from the cable. The cable bounded back like a rubber band, and completely demolished the base station. Tons of thick steel cable flying out of the sky. I wish I could have seen it.

    (My dad, now retired from Mobil, told me this story some years ago.)