brooklynman4
join:2004-09-07
Brooklyn, NY | Progress
Hey its a start  |
|
tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| I've been a fan of the project for a long time. I am disappointed development is taking so long and do not understand why the going is so slow.
The concept is a fleet of unmanned high altitude solar powered blimps able to stay on station for months at a time.
The radio technology is a no brainier. Blimp design while novel does not represent any ground breaking technology. As others have said at the proposed altitude the sun is bright, winds aloft are modest, and it is above commercial flight lanes.
/Tom |
|
BodyBumper
join:2004-06-21
Beverly Hills, CA | reply to brooklynman4
I have a feeling these people are just scamming investors. |
|
raybrett
join:2001-02-20
Saint Louis, MO | I have to agree. Unless there is something dreadfully wrong with my math, it seems cheaper to put up a $250 million dollar satellite that will cover most of the continental US that to put up 100 blimps at $30 per for a total of $3 billion. |
|
kyramilan
join:2006-11-26
Pensacola, FL
·Verizon Online DSL
 ·1and1
 ·Cox HSI
| reply to brooklynman4
Hindenburg mean anything to these morons? How about people shooting at them? Mabybe fireworks shot at them?
 |
|
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Hindenburg was Hydrogen, which isn't used for lighter than air craft anymore. 12 miles up is too far to shoot, much too far for fireworks, and you can't see the thing to aim at it anyway.
They have bigger problems. See my earlier post on frequency wasting.
calvoiper
--
VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
|
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to tschmidt
Frequency wasting
12 miles up and a footprint the size of Texas? HA!
All this would do is waste frequencies. Imagine if you could only use a cellular frequency once within the whole state of Texas, instead of re-using it scores or hundreds of times within a single metropolitan area. Putting an antenna this high will only waste frequency allocation. Think about it--whatever frequency this outfit might get would be much more valuable used over and over again from conventional towers.
Maybe this is their exit strategy. Get a frequency for this, then sell the company to someone whose only desire is to ground the blimp and use the frequency efficiently.
calvoiper
--
VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
|
Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs:
·Embarq
| reply to kyramilan
Re: Progress
Remember that time someone's house caught fire? Get a cave idiot! |
|
footballdude
join:2002-08-13
Imperial, MO
| reply to calvoiper
said by calvoiper  :Hindenburg was Hydrogen, which isn't used for lighter than air craft anymore. The Hindenburg didn't burn because of Hydrogen, it burned because the idiots who built it used flammable paint on the outside of it.
--
What's certain about Darwinism is that it would take less time for (1) a single-celled organism to evolve into a human being through mutation and natural selection than for (2) Darwinists to admit they have no proof of (1) - Ann Coulter |
|
kamm
join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
 ·Packet8
edit:
December 15th, @10:31AM
| reply to kyramilan
You mean the Reichspräsident of Weimar or the LZ-129?  |
|
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to footballdude
There are many theories about the exact cause of the Hindenburg disaster. Regardless, no serious position can be advanced that hydrogen wasn't a significant factor in the speed, size, and scope of the fire/explosion.
If it had been filled with helium, as it was designed to be, it would have been a much smaller and less spectacular event--if it caught fire at all.
calvoiper
--
VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
|
tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to raybrett
said by raybrett : it seems cheaper to put up a $250 million dollar satellite that will cover most of the continental US that to put up 100 blimps at $30 per for a total of $3 billion. That may be true but remember the Blimps are only 12 miles high vs 22,241 for geosynchronous satellites. The huge distance makes satellites impractical for two-way communication. Ask any gamer who has a satellite connection about latency.
said by kyramilan : Mabybe fireworks shot at them? Pretty good trick since they are going to be 12 miles high.
said by calvoiper : All this would do is waste frequencies. Imagine if you could only use a cellular frequency once within the whole state of Texas, instead of re-using it scores or hundreds of times within a single metropolitan area. Putting an antenna this high will only waste frequency allocation. Think about it--whatever frequency this outfit might get would be much more valuable used over and over again from conventional towers. I’m not sure that will be a huge problem. I have to assume they will use an array of many passively steerable antennas to allow spatial and frequency reuse.
/Tom |
|
