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Weather Balloons To Provide Broadband In Africa
An anonymous reader writes "Two African entrepreneurs have secured exclusive access to market near-space technology — developed by Space Data, an American telecommunications company — throughout Africa. The technology raises hydrogen-filled weather balloons to 80,000 — 100,000 feet, which individuals contact via modems. The balloons, in turn, serve as satellite substitutes which can connect Africans to broadband Internet. 'Network operation centers are located close to a fiber optic cable — say, in Lagos or Accra — and a signal is sent back and forth to the [balloon] in near space,' says one of the entrepreneurs, Timothy Anyasi. The technology will also allow mobile phone operators to offer wireless modems to customers."
but with CCTV cameras rather than broadband
weather.com
Second thought -- Palm doesn't want anyone talking about tethers.
Third thought after reading the article -- they're just releasing these balloons and letting them come down after a day in the air? Just hunting the damn things down will be a chore and a half. But this is precisely the market segment the UAV people were talking about. I think the name they were using was aerostat. Idea 1 is using a solar-powered aircraft to fly in U2 territory relaying data. Missions would last three or four months and then the plane is brought back down for maintenance. The idea is that the solar cells would charge during the day and the engines would operate off of batteries at night. The second idea is using some manner of unmanned dirigible where buoyancy is provided by hydrogen and the solar-powered engines are meant for station-keeping.
I guess this is really a matter of economics -- I guess it's cheaper to hire a guy and a jeep and hand him a map versus paying millions for air vehicles that aren't in production yet?
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A weather balloon IS a UAV that can stay up for extended periods of time.
It is quite possible that the balloon(i.e. the actual gas-filled bit) only costs $50; but I'd suspect that the equipment package hanging underneath it costs a good bit more, at least one factor of ten, quite possibly more. I say this because you can, just about, if your time is free, get an ordinary wifi router and a battery to suit rigged up for $50. I'd be absolutely shocked if you could get a proper, tested, setup for a reasonable number of users, with battery and GPS and radio(s) for $50.
As I am not familiar with African law, just with FAA flight regulations here in the United States.
Having been on a near space team (http://nearspace.0x58.com), and having launched two near space balloons, 92,999 ft, and 83,000 ft I can tell you that they pose no problems for jet liners. The balloons are big enough to be spotted by any pilot worth his salt, and they only stick around the altitude where jets fly in the first place for just a minute or so because they ascend so fast.
Also, depending on the weight in the United States you have to file a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) which gets distributed to all of the flight control towers, air traffic controllers and will also be distributed to pilots flying in the area you are planning on launching. Anything under 6 pounds you don't have to notify, but it is generally nice to do so as a courtesy. 12 pounds is the limit for amateur near space balloon launches. I have no experience with bigger near space payloads.
cat
When was the last time a passenger airplane flew at 80,000 to 100,000 feet?
Yeah, but the balloons have to travel upwards through the same airspace that airlines and other aircraft travel through.
In my other life, I eat cats.
[1131] Disconnected: Balloon Service Interrupted. Try again later.
Speaking from personal experience with the near space launches I have completed with a team (http://nearspace.0x58.com) located in Arizona, I hope they don't make the mistake of putting the GPS on the outside of the box. During our second balloon launch we launched closer to night so that we could attempt to get photo's of the sun setting (and boy did we succeed: http://nearspace.0x58.com/launches/CONNERY-2/pictures/Payload_Camera/).
However what we had not counted on was the fact that the temperature would drop so low that the GPS would literally freeze and stop responding and completely shut off, until it got low enough, and warm enough again to turn on. We thought we had lost our package payload.
Other than that, since the balloons are going to follow whatever winds they can find, how are they going to make sure that the area they want to service has a balloon above it at all times? What if the wind is going in the wrong direction? As for recovering the devices, will they be water proof? What if it lands in a lake, or body of water? What about high up on the mountain side somewhere?
Definitely interesting and something to watch in the near future, if this is cheaper than launching a satellite and can be done in a sustainable method and still provide adequate phone service or other services using near space technology!
cat
This could give a whole new meaning to "the internet is down". Of course when signing up you have to be wary when they advertise "high"-speed internet. I guess it should work fine though, given the cheap overhead. I just wish it wasn't only planned for parts of Africa, as it sounds like it will be above and beyond what we've got here in America.
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Apparently the balloons need to be taken down daily to have their batteries recharched. I wonder, wouldn't 80,000-100,000 feet be mostly above cloud level and be an excellent opportunity to use solar cells?
The balloons come down every 24 hours due to the limitations of battery life -- and to keep them from floating into territories that don't subscribe to the service.
The drifting might be a tougher nut to crack though. Rather interesting idea for rural areas actually.
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Why do you want to over engineer things? A balloon is easy to make, cheap to make and can stay up for days.
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So what happens then when these untethered balloons are floating up into the jet stream and a Airbus or 747 doesn't pick it up on radar
causing an explosion and bringing down 400 souls to their death
Looks like you've answered your own question there. I just hope I'm not on that plane.
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When you take into a ccount that any time they try and lay fiber it gets stolen and sold for it's scrap value, this is a great idea. Less chance of the infrastructure being stolen/damaged.
First of all, if they are seriously considering a commercial venture here, it implies there are enough well-off people to be served that it could be a viable business. Second, this will simply generate business, which means more cashflow, leading to more economic growth witin these countries. Not to mention poverty is commonly tied to low education and the internet is a powerful educational tool when used properly.
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These don't - they stay up for 24 hours. DARPA has people working on fixed wing aircraft that will stay up for months. That's not over engineering - that's much better than this.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
This seems like an awfully expensive solution. Does anyone remember Stratovision? It was too costly to keep a B-29 in the air 24/7 just to broadcast. Why should it be any different with disposable air balloons carrying easily lost technology?
If God meant for cell towers to be attached to balloons, he would have, uh, err, done something different!
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Honestly, I hope they use hydrogen for this. Helium is uniquely non-replaceable. It's the product of very slow alpha particle decay, trapped in natural gas fields and such. We'll eventually empty those natural gas fields. There are lots of other ways to make energy, and we can make natural gas if we need methane, specifically, for whatever reason. But we can't make helium except through nuclear fusion. Even then, if fusion delivered 100% of earth's electricity needs, it'd only create a small fraction of what we currently use per year.
We'll always have plenty of hydrogen because it bonds to everything. Helium doesn't, so once you crack open that helium tank, it's just a matter of time until it floats off into space, where it's as good as gone.
Perhaps because: "The balloons come down every 24 hours due to the limitations of battery life -- and to keep them from floating into territories that don't subscribe to the service. "You're looking at a wide geographic area -- there's a wide jet stream at near space"
BTW, you'll NEVER GUESS where that quote came from... NEVER!
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The US has been using these along the southern border for years. They are tethered & fly at 15,000 feet and provide radar coverage along the border to interdict drug smuggling by air. They had problems with leaky balloons, and the need to ground them for maintenance, at which time they were vulnerable to bad weather on the surface. There were formal no-fly zones posted in their vicinity. Apparently there was no problem with aircraft running into them. I've driven along I-10 and occasionally have been able to see them in the air, they definitely look like hovering flying saucers.
At night all balloons are required to have a flashing light that is visible for up to 2 or 5 miles.
So yes, at night as well.
cat
Not only that but communication tools are vital to improving the livelihood of Africans. I've been working with an open source tool, Frontline SMS - it's already being used to do some amazing things.
Rather than continuing to send cash and some food, which has thus far not really been much help - we can help build infrastructure that will give people more control over their own lives and the ability to improve their circumstances on their own.
I saw a demo a couple weeks ago by some guys from a communications lab from a local university. They are building a system to provide educational materials via mobile phones - iphone and android right now. They've got grants to get androids on the ground in developing nations. The system can work completely via sms if necessary but an internet connection is better.
There are some exciting things going on in tech in Africa and this is cool to see.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
"Look its a bird!"
"Its a plane!"
"Uh its my ISP bro..."
The longer a balloon is up - the farther it is going to travel. Anything to change that will drive up costs. And switch around the comparison - so that it makes economic sense. What's the cost of an ultra-endurance airplane compared to a satellite?
The Vulture program is aiming for an aircraft that can keep a 1,000 lb payload up for at least 5 years - over a designated area 99% of the time. That's further out - but it makes more sense than balloons for quite a few reasons.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Yes, but I doubt if they use a significant amount of helium.
How much do those ballons use?
Compare to cooling down a NMR magnet, which consumes more than 1000 liters liquid ( > 700,000 liters gas).
Sadly there is a helium shortage, not so much that we are hitting the point of end of resources (which will eventually come), but because not all the natural gas fields that could capture - are capturing helium.
http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA6518723.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6444180
I'm waiting for someone to build a solar-powered, unmanned zeppelin. If you inflate it with hydrogen, you can maintain altitude by electrolyzing ballast water or by venting off excess hydrogen. A weather balloon might stay up for days; this could stay up for years.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
I don't think anyone's done it yet, which of course isn't to say it can't be done. I think such a structure, if buildable, would be very costly and fragile (more so than any balloon).
It would be easier if you were able to deploy it from its target altitude. Otherwise you have three conflicting requirements:
Good luck!