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NASA Pondering $1.5 Million Stratospheric Airship Competition
coondoggie writes: NASA this week said it was contemplating a public competition to build airships capable of reaching the stratosphere where they could remain for a period of time gathering astronomical data or watching environmental changes on the ground. Airship Challenge's goals (PDF) include: a minimum altitude of 20km, maintained for 20 hours; successful return of payload data as well as cargo up to 20kg; and a demonstration of the airship's scalability for longer/larger missions.
From the article:
A requirement is being considered that competitors must independently gain FAA approval for their airships and provide a location for demonstration.
How would you get these approvals and location for anything close to a million dollars?
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
where they could remain for a period of time gathering astronomical data
eye roll
or watching environmental changes on the ground.
double eye roll
Seems like this would make a pretty darn good wide-area wireless/cell "tower"
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
It's time to reach for the stars like it's 1783.
Cause rocket science is hard.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
at 20km up it's going to be fucking cold. Whatever you build your airship out of it's got to be able to withstand that without cracking (like mylar or PTFE would).
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
It will be better to purchase from an owner who is a good farmer and a good builder.
Maybe a good fit for JP Aerospace and their Airship To Orbit project
The top of the stratosphere is a little below freezing. Weather balloons often hit the lower range of the stratosphere and burst only because they don't have a pressure release valve.
Mylar is good to about -150C.
If you have the thermal datasheet in front of you, you see it says the physical properties START to change at about -75, and it remains usable to -250, depending on the application. -56 sounds a bit low, but there is a cold layer before it starts to warm up with increasing altitude, so you could hit -56, I suppose.
Why not? The airship-to-orbit folks have found solutions for 7 of their 10 impossible obstacles, and if they can solve the remaining three (plus any unexpected obstacles) their approach promises to eventually reduce the cost to orbit to pennies a pound, while removing the risks inherent in riding a giant bomb into orbit. Can they do it? No idea, but given the payoff it's certainly an approach worth pursuing. If they have a large enough prototype Dark Sky Station to handle the payload I'm hopeful they will be able to win this competition and enough funding to make a serious attempt at their second stage dark-sky to orbit hypersonic airship.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Cheaper, I don't know about better though - an orbital camera doesn't have to deal with air turbulence, though a gyroscopic stabilizer can probably compensate for most of that. I have a hard time imagining such things *not* being used for surveillance though - and not just in military regions. What social power conglomerate *wouldn't* want a 24/7 eye-in-the-sky swarm to help keep the peasants in line?
For communications though - talk about your obvious solution! At less than 1/5 the minimum quasi-stable orbital distance transmission powers will be less than 1/25 what is necessary for even the closest satellites - and actually within range of standard cell phone transmissions: At 35 km maximum cell range that gets you roughly 30km radius at the surface distance with a "tower" high above it. Wonderful for providing coverage in mountainous areas. Improve the "tower" for longer range and raise it to 40km or so and you've got line-of-sight over something like a 400km radius. If solar power is sufficient for station keeping cell towers could become a thing of the past.
And none of that detracts from the scientific value, especially considering those altitudes have been almost completely unexplored. If anything it improves it, since commercial applications will tend to drive down the cost of equipment and allow more researchers to afford it.
And hey, eventually they'll probably get cheap enough that private citizens can afford their own spy "satellites" with which to watch the watchers. Quadcopter drones are already starting to get in on the action.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.