Sanswire Demonstrates First Stratellite

Sterling D. Allan writes "Pure Energy Systems News (PESN) reports that GlobeTel Communications Corp. debuted their Sanswire Stratellite last week to over 300 people, including members of the media, personnel from the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. and international commercial interests, as well as investors and shareholders. Stationed in the stratosphere, well above the jet stream, powered by film solar photovoltaic units, the device will make wireless communications available anywhere in the U.S., including on airline flights. One Stratellite will have a payload capacity of several thousand pounds and clear line-of-sight to approximately 300,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Texas."

Comments

But....

[TGK]

Municipal wifi is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of!

Sadly.

[Anonymous Coward]

The press release fails to point out that the demonstration was an abysmal failure and not even the wasteful spendthrifts from the pentagon were interested in putting in an order. Film at eleven.

Terrific!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can download porn on my cell phone at 20,000 feet! And join the mile high jack off club of dateless Slashdotting losers! In soviet Russia, stratalite launches YOU!

wow

[sfcat]

This is impressive. Solar powered, but are there weather problems at this altitude? I guess not, but can we put cameras on this thing too. Better maps for google maps, yea. When does it fly by SF again?

Re:wow

[mikael]

65,000 feet is above the jet stream. All the bad stuff is below 50,000 feet.

Now, if they get a whole network of these (50+), they could cover the entire USA.

Conversion units

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a Metric Texas or an Imperial one?

Re:Conversion units

[Presidential]

As a new resident of Texas, I can assure you that _all_ Texas is Imperial.

Think Darth Bush..

Stratellite disk

[zbeeble]

Straight out of Del boys mouth. "I just got one of those new Stratellite dishes"

Re:Wireless capability is a lot less than 300,000s

[Z0mb1eman]

From TsameFA (actually, just the line above):

# Line-of-sight to a 300,000 square mile area
# Wireless capability (currently) to an area with a radius of 200 miles

Radius 200 miles ~= 125,000 square miles, anyway... not sure if that counts as "a lot" less.

And it seems to imply that the wireless capability will eventually be extended to approach the entire line of sight area...

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is going to be famous for shooting it out of the sky?

JP Aerospace, anyone?

[pyth]

http://jpaerospace.com/

They're planning to use such airships to launch ships into space, by slowly achieving orbital speed!

"utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology"

[Senor_Programmer]

Can anyone parse,
"...utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology",
in a way that makes sense?

Re:"utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology"

[Spad]

It's called Helium

Re:"utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology"

[potentiallyprofound]

It's 'lifting gas', as in, gas that lifts. Y'know, like 'running man', or 'overreacting slashdotter'. "...utilizing proprietary overracting slashdotter technology, the publicist was able to create a buzz about his software in a matter of minutes"

Re:"utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology"

[zippthorne]

density helium = .1785 kg/m^3
density air = 1.29 kg/m^3

so the lift of a "pure vacuum" blimp would be about 14% better than that of a helium blimp. So you must make the structural mass of your "vacuum blimp" is smaller than than the extra lift.

WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE...

[Anonymous Coward]

change the parent post to Funny rather than Informative or Insightful. The AC post was a joke, made up by the AC, me. Any resemblance to factual matters is purely coincidental.

What's the Frequency Kenneth?

[bluedream]

Anybody catch what frequency this contraption is going to operate on?

Somehow I don't think it is going to be on a unlicensed frequency.

I love airships

[tsotha]

I love airships, and I really, really want them to return to the skies, since it's a technology that has a lot of room to develop if someone can get it off the ground. But this outfit has the feel of a fly-by-night stock scam. Listen to what the CEO has to say:

"In my opinion, the media is reporting on the progress of Sanswire One as they recognize the potential of our airship and the potential of causing what I always refer to as a paradigm shift in the telecommunications industry."

and here:

"This shows his belief in what we are trying to achieve at Sanswire. His innovative approach and out-of- the-box thinking is enabling us to successfully execute the program."

This is buzzword bullshit completely devoid of meaning, the kind of stuff you tell potential investors when you realize your scheme is gonna cost a whole lot more than you'll ever make. I'm thinking if they actually had a viable business plan you would hear something with a little more content from the CEO.

Re:Great googlie wooglie!

[yotto]

It's 65,000 feet in the air, and is (From TFA) 245 feet on the long diameter.

That's about .00006 (if I did the math right) degrees across. In case I did, it would be the same relative size as a 6 foot guy 1600 feet (About a quarter mile) away.

IOW, if its shadow covers your house, you should be more concerned about your house than the shadow :D

Re:Wireless capability is a lot less than 300,000s

[fungus]

Read this if you are sceptical about Sanswire claims.

It *is* still vaporware

[billstewart]

It sounds like it's more advanced vaporware than in the past, but it's still vaporware. One of the news articles has a bit more information: "Wisconsin communications company Sanswire unveiled its almost-finished prototype of a hard-framed, unmanned airship designed to fly in the stratosphere 21 km above the earth and send broadband and mobile phone signals to an area the size of Texas." and quotes them discussing FAA certification as "We don't have a test date, but we're hoping for midsummer," "But we're still years ahead of any other program doing anything like this."

They've been hyping this for years, and while the telecom crash of the early 2000s kicked the chair out from under their business plans, they'd still be really really cool if they ever deployed the bloody things.

By the way, their PR mockup picture of the Stratellite looks amazingly like the whale in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.