 
skelet0r
Premium
join:2004-04-26
Florence, AL | look out below Yeah, until one of them explodes a la Hindenburg, and leaves a land mass the size of Texas without broadband. | |
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grcore
New and Improved
join:2003-12-06
usa | Gives a new meaning to "The network is Down" . | |
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| | NoOneButMe
join:2001-08-24
TX | Re: Gives a new meaning to "The network is Down" lol | |
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DHRacer
Fire Survivor
join:2000-10-10
Lake Arrowhead, CA | Re: Gives a new meaning to "The network is Down" Why not just call it BlimpBand... | |
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| LagAndFrag
join:2003-02-05
West Branch, MI
| Re: look out below GlobeTel foresees a fleet of helium-filled "stratellites," each able to stay aloft for months at a time and automatically held on station by electric motors powered by batteries charged by solar cells.
...........................................................
Short of a battery popping a top. There is nothing to explode.
Sorry to burst your bubble Chicken Little. | |
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BonezX
Basement Dweller
Premium
join:2004-04-13
Canada | Re: look out below might land on a gas station causing a spark igniting the fuel.
but that's allmost too random. | |
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osme
Premium
join:2001-09-07
Hamilton, ON | Re: look out below Sorry, Helium cannot and will not burn. They stopped filling blimps with Hydrogen long ago. | |
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| ced06
join:2004-03-12
Towanda, PA | If you're not being sarcastic: Helium won't explode. | |
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BodyBumper
join:2004-06-21
Beverly Hills, CA | Re: look out below but I'm quite sure the tons of equipment on it will come down on someone's house or apartment intact unlike a satellite which will burn upon reentery.
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"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." | |
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Duh
@fuse.net
| Re: look out below Because I'm sure they just let it randomly crash to ground and don't have any plans set up for guiding it to some sort of empty area. Scientists and engineers are such idiots, sending up this blimp with no plans and just hoping and hoping it doesn't just drift away or crash. | |
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BonezX
Basement Dweller
Premium
join:2004-04-13
Canada | Re: look out below they can plan all they want, but once you eliminate lift it's going to drop.
remember, baloon not plane. | |
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| | | | elmatador
join:2003-09-13
Vista, CA | said by Duh:
Scientists and engineers are such idiots...
If it weren't for scientists and engineers you wouldn't have a computer, internet, etc... to write such a silly thing. | |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA | Re: look out below Some are, some aren't, not sure why you say such a thing about one group. | |
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rtcpenguin
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Fairfax, VA
 ·Cox HSI
| You may actually have some valid points there...blimps aren't exactly the most "air-worthy" vessels(?). Wouldn't 13 miles up be near the jet stream? I don't think blimps handle turbulence well.
Also, what happens when one of these things has to land to refuel? They'd have to have a back-up blimp (lol) ready to go.
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Will you still remember, There behind the skies, Walking on the embers, Standing in their light -FF | |
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Almadiel
@WPI.EDU | Re: look out below 13 miles is well above any weather systems. | |
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zoom314
Superman
Premium
join:2001-04-30
Yermo, CA
| said by skelet0r  :Yeah, until one of them explodes a la Hindenburg, and leaves a land mass the size of Texas without broadband. I don't think They'd be using anything but Helium and last I heard It isn't explosive or even flammable in the least.
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Firefox forever!
»zoom314.blogspot.com/
»mysite.verizon.net/zoom314/ | |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
3 edits | "What Can We Learn from the Hindenburg Disaster?
The explosion of the luxury airship Hindenburg at Lakehurst, NJ, on May 6, 1937, serves as one of the most spectacular moments recorded by the media. Until very recently, it has aided in paralyzing the development of widespread hydrogen use as a fuel, due to concerns for safety (and viewing the fiery picture above, understandably so). But knowing the actual nature of the Hindenburg disaster, as well as knowing the behavior of hydrogen allows us to dispel this stigma associated with hydrogen.
The Facts on the Hindenburg Disaster:
1. The bags of hydrogen that provided the lifting force for the Hindenburg were NOT the main contributor to the fire. The surface of the ship was coated with a combination of dark iron oxide and reflective aluminum paint. These components are extremely flammable and burn at a tremendously energetic rate once ignited. The skin of the airship was ignited by electrical discharge from the clouds while docking during an electrical storm. This reaction has been proven chemically for years, and was demonstrated with actual remnants of the Hindenburg sixty years later, which burned as vigorously as on the day of the disaster.
2. The hydrogen burned quickly, safely, above the occupants. When the escaping hydrogen was ignited by the burning skin of the airship, it burned far above the airship, and was completely consumed within 60 seconds of the ignition. During this period of time, the airship descended to the ground from the 150-foot docking tower.
3. Almost all deaths were caused by jumping or falling from the airship. Of the 35 deaths from the disaster, 33 were caused by jumping or falling. Only two deaths were caused by burning, and it is likely that those two were from proximity to the burning skin of the airship, or from the stores of diesel fuel that were ignited by the covering. Whereas the hydrogen burned within one minute of ignition, the diesel fires burned for up to ten hours after the ignition.
4. The Hindenburg would have burned if it had been filled with inert helium gas. Even if the Hindenburg had not been lifted by hydrogen, the ignition of the covering would still have happened, and would then have set ablaze the diesel stores, resulting in the same disaster.
5. The main cause of the disaster was pilot error. The only way to prevent the disaster would have been if the pilot had chosen to land in better conditions elsewhere, which was very feasible, considering he had had enough fuel remaining to reach all the way to California.
The Nature of Hydrogen:
Hydrogen is less flammable than gasoline. The self-ignition temperature of hydrogen is 550 degrees Celsius. Gasoline varies from 228-501 degrees Celsius, depending on the grade. When the Hindenburg burned, it took some time before the hydrogen bags were ignited.
Hydrogen disperses quickly. Being the lightest element (fifteen times lighter than air), hydrogen rises and spreads out quickly in the atmosphere. So when a leak occurs, the hydrogen gas quickly becomes so sparse that it cannot burn. Even when ignited, hydrogen burns upward, and is quickly consumed, as shown in the Hindenburg picture. By contrast, materials such as gasoline and diesel vapors, as well as natural gas are heavier than air, and will not disperse, remaining a flammable threat for much longer.
Hydrogen is non-toxic. Hydrogen is a non-toxic, naturally-occurring element in the atmosphere. By comparison, all petroleum fuels are asphyxiants, and are poisonous to humans.
Hydrogen combustion produces only water. When pure hydrogen is burned in pure oxygen, only pure water is produced. Granted, that’s an ideal scenario, which doesn’t occur outside of laboratories and the space shuttle. In any case, when a hydrogen engine burns, it actually cleans the ambient air, by completing combustion of the unburned hydrocarbons that surround us. Compared with the toxic compounds (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrogen sulfide) produced by petroleum fuels, the products of hydrogen burning are much safer.
Hydrogen can be stored safely. Tanks currently in use for storage of compressed hydrogen (similar to compressed natural gas tanks) have survived intact through testing by various means, including being shot with six rounds from a .357 magnum, detonating a stick of dynamite next to them, and subjecting them to fire at 1500 degrees F. Clearly, a typical gasoline tank wouldn’t survive a single one of these tests.
What Have We Learned?
No fuel we currently use or have yet to develop will be totally without hazards, through all the processes of production, transportation, and consumption, just as no kitchen knife can be used without risk to the chef. Hydrogen has long been considered close to ideal as a fuel due to its abundance, non-toxic characteristics, and international availability. We must recognize that each of us has learned to use knives safely, and do so daily. As long as we use wisdom in our methods of production, storage, and use of hydrogen, we’ll enjoy the same safety we have had with petroleum fuels, with the additional benefit of fewer health hazards when leaks do occur.
Sources
The following sources were used for this article:
Research by Addison Bain, NASA Investigator into the Hindenburg disaster.
McAlister, Roy. The Philosopher Mechanic.
Cox, Jack. "Will Hydrogen Bomb?" The Denver Post. April 5, 2000. "
»www.hydrogennow.org/Facts/Safety-1.htm
--
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See HEAVY DUTY freight& passenger action @ the Galesburg, IL Rail Cam!
»205.245.189.161:1100/
Take Amtrak, leave the trip to the experts!
»www.amtrak.com | |
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nekote
join:2000-12-16
Hopkinton, MA
| Nice piece on the Hindenburg Nice job on the Hindenburg - jogged my memory of the investigations that found it was the flamable skin that was mostly to blame.
Best point IMHO - same thing woulda' happened, even if it were somehow using inert helium.
As to hydrogen, however, I can't see storing it in its gaseous form or creating a pure hydrogen gas infrastructure as a likely winner. Rather, storing hydrogen in something much more energy dense, and familiar, like methanol, ethanol, gasoline or some such familiar hydrocarbon.
U of Minn. came up with an inexpensive catalyst that auto-reforms ethanol to hydrogen, rather than needing a steam reformer 100 times bigger. One of many:
»news.minnesota.publicradio.org/f···ydrogen/
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Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all other forms of government. - Winston Churchill | |
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rtcpenguin
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Fairfax, VA | We already went over this idea. It won't work because blimps will litter our city's skys like a horrible, horrible dream. | |
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nekote
join:2000-12-16
Hopkinton, MA
| 1 every 10 miles, at 65,000 feet? "litter our city's skys" ???
A full coverage grid of "Stratellites" would be 1 blimp spot per 10 or 20 miles, depending on overlap.
At 65,000 feet.
You could see it with a telescope or binoculars, if you knew where to look, that is.
Maybe catch a glint of light off it, every now and again.
Otherwise the darn thing will be virtually invisible and very difficult to spot.
Probably going to need a strobe beacon to be "seen".
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Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all other forms of government. - Winston Churchill | |
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rtcpenguin
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Fairfax, VA | Re: 1 every 10 miles, at 65,000 feet? I think you missed the sarcasm. The hyperbole was a dead giveaway. | |
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nekote
join:2000-12-16
Hopkinton, MA | Re: 1 every 10 miles, at 65,000 feet? Yes, absolutely missed the sarcastic hyperbole. 
In any case, thanks for making me put on my thinking cap. | |
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vd853
join:2004-12-29
Brooklyn, NY | I'm will to welcome anything that will boost my speed, even if that means a fireball hovering over my roof. | |
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netmasta
join:2004-06-06
Randolph, MA | Gives new meaning to "High Speed"  eom | |
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st4t1c
Nihilist.
Premium
join:2004-10-03
Boulder Creek, CA
·Comcast
| Other concerns. I'd be more afraid of one of these things going screwy and stearing itself into some urban area. There is not some 24/7 maytag man chilling in it.
However, being a giant ballon I don't see very much damage being caused when they do go down, lol. | |
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footballdude
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Imperial, MO
| Re: Other concerns. said by st4t1c :I'd be more afraid of one of these things going screwy and stearing itself into some urban area. One of the reasons satellites are allowed to crash from time to time is that it's nearly impossible to hit anything worthwhile by accident. There's so much undeveloped land and so little developed land that crashing into something just isn't a problem. | |
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rawgerz
In Debt we trust
Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| the 'peter pan' broadband I'm pretty sure they are not going to fill it with 100% helium after the Hindenburgh.. and being 13 miles in the sky i dont see it "crashing" either the biggest challenge i can see is trying to keep this thing from floating miles away
and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. and that doesn't appeal to me
this might be the beginning of sky advertising (if they changed it to a lower altitude)..i really dont want to see "Do the Dew!" in the sky at night | |
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jmn1207
Premium
join:2000-07-19
Reston, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: the 'peter pan' broadband said by rawgerz :I'm pretty sure they are not going to fill it with 100% helium after the Hindenburgh.. and being 13 miles in the sky i dont see it "crashing" either the biggest challenge i can see is trying to keep this thing from floating miles away and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. and that doesn't appeal to me this might be the beginning of sky advertising (if they changed it to a lower altitude)..i really dont want to see "Do the Dew!" in the sky at night The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen. Helium is not combustible. | |
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Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
Sweden
·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| said by rawgerz :I'm pretty sure they are not going to fill it with 100% helium after the Hindenburgh.. and being 13 miles in the sky i dont see it "crashing" either the biggest challenge i can see is trying to keep this thing from floating miles away and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. and that doesn't appeal to me this might be the beginning of sky advertising (if they changed it to a lower altitude)..i really dont want to see "Do the Dew!" in the sky at night It's not meant to be a low latency service. The entire point of it is to provide broadband across the entire country, so ANYONE can get it. If you are in an urban area chances are you'll be getting fiber from your local telco within the next 5 years. This service will provide 15, 30, 100 mbit for dirt cheap prices.... Just give it a chance, a broadband revolution is on the horizon.
-Tzale
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Hey OOL, throttle this! I'm going to FIOS...Verizon FIOS Forum | |
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| pooker314
join:2005-04-12
Brush Prairie, WA
| said by rawgerz :and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. I would be very surprised if any noticable latency resulted from the distance alone. I use Starband (satellite) and the round trip there is close to 100,000 miles and pings are often around 700-1000ms. 26 miles should be negligible. | |
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| jazzy112
join:2003-12-05
Fargo, ND
| Actually, I have a 44 mile round trip on my system and it's only 7ms. I believe if they cover texas with one blimp then they might have some overusage latency. However from what I have read before, the latency should be right in line with other technologies.
Nothing wireless will ever be able to compete with fiber. Same goes with BPL, fiber will still kick it's ass. So it's not really fair to compare any technology with fiber. Fiber is meant for high bandwidth and is the only true internet medium out there. All the others are abortions put together just well enough so they will do the job. | |
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pcscdma
Chocobo Chocobo Random Battle
Premium
join:2004-01-14
Winterset, IA
clubs:
| »www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sp···e+Search
it says -
the speed of light = 186.282397 miles per millisecond
It's at least a 52 mile round trip for anything. It goes from customer premises to the blimp - blimp to ground network operation center with Interweb connection - comes back to the NOC - the NOC beams it back to the blimp - the blimp beams it to the customer premises.
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"The bad news is that we are told that Michael Powell, one of Washington's better bureaucrats, is calling it quits today after four years at the helm of the Federal Communications Commission." - WSJ 2005/01/21 | |
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| | nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA | Re: the 'peter pan' broadband Either way the distance is trivial and wont affect ping times any more than cable or DSL. | |
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| nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA
| said by rawgerz :and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. and that doesn't appeal to me Jeez - did they teach *any* physics at your school? Speed of light is around 186000 miles per second. | |
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gtdawg
Premium
join:2002-03-17
Los Angeles, CA
| said by rawgerz :I'm pretty sure they are not going to fill it with 100% helium after the Hindenburgh.. and being 13 miles in the sky i dont see it "crashing" either the biggest challenge i can see is trying to keep this thing from floating miles away and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. and that doesn't appeal to me this might be the beginning of sky advertising (if they changed it to a lower altitude)..i really dont want to see "Do the Dew!" in the sky at night Wow.
1) Helium isn't combustible
2) Satellite broadband is about 22,000 miles above your house, Stratellite's 13 miles will be _nothing_.
3) Why would they lower the balloon? That would force them to put up more balloons to cover the same amount of area PLUS they would need to combat weather systems at a lower altitude. Not a good business decision.
Just food for thought  | |
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printscreen
join:2003-11-01
Juana Diaz, PR
·Coqui/PRTC
1 edit | said by rawgerz :and still 26 miles round trip its gonna make for some +300ms pings I'm sure.. and that doesn't appeal to me How come a 26 mile round trip on air would take longer than several hundred or thousand miles of fiber cable-cross country?
Air time alone (round trip from your house to the blimp) adds less than 1 millisecond. Any measurable latency would be related to equipment and not to distance. | |
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| averagedude
join:2002-01-30
Mesa, AZ | Re: Parachute What do they do about it falling through the commercial airline traffic?
What happens when a jet airliner hits when the blimp fails?
Would think that it would be equipped with some kind of emergency beacon. | |
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zoom314
Superman
Premium
join:2001-04-30
Yermo, CA
| Re: Parachute said by averagedude :What do they do about it falling through the commercial airline traffic? What happens when a jet airliner hits when the blimp fails? Would think that it would be equipped with some kind of emergency beacon. They said It would be up at an Altitude of 13 miles(68,640'), So unless the airlines go higher than 50,000', Then I wouldn't worry too much. As the normal flight altitude of a Boeing 747 is 45,000' »www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/p···747.html
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Firefox forever!
»zoom314.blogspot.com/
»mysite.verizon.net/zoom314/ | |
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| | | averagedude
join:2002-01-30
Mesa, AZ
·Cox HSI
| Re: Parachute As stated by me:
"What do they do about it falling through the commercial airline traffic?"
Rephrased:
So what happens when the blimp fails and falls down from way up high, down through the commerical airline traffic towards the ground?
I hope this clarifies the question? | |
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ctceo
Premium
join:2001-04-26
South Bend, IN
clubs: | I'm not certain they have released there plans for an emergency situation such as that. I hope that some of My ideas can come in handy. | |
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rogue_
I Have A Secret Window
Premium
join:2001-10-17
Lake Hiawatha, NJ
| Article I think I read this in Popular Mechanics last month. I'm not 100% sure about the rag as I get so many but it was definatly an article in a magazine. Could have been AMSCI.
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Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. | |
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OutOfKilter
Go Cats
join:2001-02-25
Irvine, KY | Re: Article There was an article in the March issue of Popular Science. | |
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rogue_
I Have A Secret Window
Premium
join:2001-10-17
Lake Hiawatha, NJ
| Re: Article Yep, you are correct. It was such a long time ago I read it I had forgotten. As a subscriber I think I actually got the mag in February.
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Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. | |
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mitska
join:2001-12-25
Sarasota, FL | hmm all that expensive equipment floating around unmanned, wonder how long before someone steals it? | |
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RDins
@comcast.net | Re: hmm Are you going to fly up there and steal it? | |
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johnny_t
Premium
join:2004-03-21
Palo Alto, CA | Nice... Finally Broadband, HDTV, & Celluar. For dirt cheap.
Sounds like the future & sounds good to me | |
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See 7 replies to this post |
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bent
not broken
Premium
join:2004-10-04
Loveland, CO
clubs: | I can see it now... |\_____________
~~~| Verizon \
~~~| Anti-Muni >
~~~| _____________/
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Pura Vida! | |
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oliphant
I Have 8 Boobies
Premium
join:2004-11-26
Corona, CA
| OH, THE HUMANITY! Sounds like behind the scenes at Comcast over the next round of DNS failures.
It's crashing. It's crashing terrible. Oh! My! Get out of the way, please. This is TERRIBLE! This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh! Oh! It's a terrible crash, ladies and gentleman. Oh ! The humanity !
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Don't get it, demand it! The Anime Network www.theanimenetwork.com | |
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FTCXtreme
join:2005-03-14
New Braintree, MA | Put one in Massachuetts Screw you guys, Put one over massachusetts, then i can get it and the rest of New England too.:) Dont insult this It gives me hope. | |
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tim_k
Buttons, Bows, Beamer, Shadow, Kasey
Premium
join:2002-02-02
Stewartstown, PA | geniuses Sigh; From looking at some of these posts, I can see what state the public education system is in. | |
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sirsloop
Premium
join:2004-02-18
New York, NY | HAHAHA......this is ridiculous... "your internet is down because our blimp was shot down by a bbgun" | |
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nekote
join:2000-12-16
Hopkinton, MA
2 edits | 1 nanosecond per foot, isn't it I thought "radio" / light traveled at ~ 1 foot per nanosecond, in round numbers, so to speak.
65,000 feet up, right?
So, 65,000 nanoseconds, give or take, right?
6.5 micro-seconds, right?
So, double that as the length of a hypothetical "hypotenuse" to 13 usec and even multiply by 4 (2 full round trips).
The full 2 round trip latency would be 52 usec, right?
Call it 1/20'th of even 1 lousy milli-second (msec) of added latency.
That'd fit in, rather swimmingly, with today's existing technology (Internet / cell phone) running toward tens or low hundreds of milliseconds latency.
As to wind at 65,000 feet.
The claim is that at that altitude it is above the jet stream.
Also, that the air density is only 1/18'th of sea level.
Thus, a 60 MPH wind at 65,000 ft has the same *force* equivalent of 3 MPH at sea level.
Wouldn't take much energy / power to hold a fixed position.
But would take some comparatively pretty dang big propellers in such thin atmosphere!
Probably more toward windmill sized, I would think. | |
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| Phrogz
join:2001-07-18
Saint Louis, MO
| Close Off by one order of magnitude. Ask google to do your hard computations for you:
»www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=65···e+Search
66usec one way, 132usec ideal round trip, 186usec round trip with 45 degree angle LoS, or (as you had it) 264usec "worst-case" round trip.
Your point is still valid - it's 1/4 of a millisecond. Not a noticable addition, in and of itself. | |
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nekote
join:2000-12-16
Hopkinton, MA
| Re: 1 nanosecond per foot, isn't it How the heck did I screw up by an order of magnitude!
Sheesh.
65 usec base number.
2 full round trips max of 520 usec
Call it 1/2 of 1 milli-second, rather than 1/20'th.
My bad!
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Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all other forms of government. - Winston Churchill | |
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Noah Vail
Premium
join:2004-12-10
Lorton, VA | I all ways tol ya. I'm tellin ya them flyin contraptions are gonna come to no good. If man was born to fly he'd have a gas pipe up his nose and he'd be all blown up like dat stay-pufd marshmallow man.
NV | |
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| jjonescis
join:2004-02-13
Elizabethtown, KY | Re: I all ways tol ya. What are they going up in a hot air balloon to fix equipment? | |
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nekote
join:2000-12-16
Hopkinton, MA
| Repairs / retrofits done on the ground The plan is for these "Stratellites" to fly autonomously on solar power for 18 months at a stretch.
And then RTB (Return To Base) for servicing / retrofitting.
They're starting with dual engines, each capable of doing the whole job, as more or less any multi-engine vehicle is designed, these days.
If things really screw up, say, with the electronics or whatever, gotta' get a spare on scene, pronto. Or, have a hot spare, already there, waiting to take over.
Land the bad boy, fix it, and return to the fleet.
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Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all other forms of government. - Winston Churchill | |
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rawgerz
In Debt we trust
Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA
·Verizon Online DSL
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Re: Repairs / retrofits done on the ground thats a good point on the size of the propellers but i dont think it will really matter they cover " Line-of-sight to a 300,000 square mile area" "Wireless capability (currently) to an area with a radius of 200 miles"
so even if it did drift off a few miles its not gonna do too much if they want to just cover a major city
as far as pings go idk if wireless is as fast as light but if it is then im guessing it will have pings in the 10's of milliseconds
this guy has an extensive resume so maybe they can make this happen »www.sanswire.com/profiles/bobjones.html
assuming this makes it through all the obstacles this sounds like its good in theory but does someone know when/where they launch them?
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Read this! | |
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raderator
join:2003-07-22
Conklin, NY
1 edit | Convert TV Towers I think they should just get rid of broadcast TV since no one watches it anymore and convert the towers to broadband at some reasonable frequency.
Other obsolete things to get rid of:
Cash
Post Office | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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Jafo232
You Can't Spell Democrat Without Rat.
Premium
join:2002-10-17
Boonville, NY
·RoadRunner Cable
| Better than towers Would rather have a bunch of balloons flying higher than I can see them, than having thousands of towers all over the place mucking up the landscape. Now if they could only serve power from up there we could rid ourselves of telephone poles.
They have been putting balloons up this high since the 1920's, the technology is as sound as bridge building so the danger element is nill.
26 miles will cause no real latency, and the blimps will be above 99% of all the weather that affects the earth. A big enough network of these, and you could drop a hundred from the sky with no real loss of communications.
As for servicing them, you could either fly the thing back to base, or hop in one of them and dock with the errant blimp and do you work.
Earthquakes, fire, hell nuclear war would not really affect these things, I think they are a great idea.
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Register Your Gaming Clan at Clan-Council.com | |
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Lucif4
Premium
join:2000-12-12
clubs:
| Public Preview Here are some pictures from the public preview (April 12th, 2005).
I think this idea is great! Of course there are going to be obstacles... There are some very smart people working on this project. The applications and possibilities are endless.
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You never know when you'll need a guardian devil. | |
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| | bobny1
join:2004-09-10
Bronx, NY
1 edit | Re: Public Preview I never though I would read in the news *** School of docks collide with a fleet of Blimps over Texas sky leaving 10,000 households without Broadband service***. | |
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Jafo232
You Can't Spell Democrat Without Rat.
Premium
join:2002-10-17
Boonville, NY
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Public Preview said by bobny1 :I never though I would read in the news *** School of docks collide with a fleet of Blimps over Texas sky leaving 10,000 households without Broadband service***. And you won't, until ducks learn how to fly 13 miles high in the sky.
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Register Your Gaming Clan at Clan-Council.com | |
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jengersnap
join:2000-09-14
Ridgeway, ON
2 edits | High Speed Whale? That thing looks like a big whale. Anyone know it's name? Jonah, perhaps?
(goes off to contemplate WAPs attached to mylar balloons...) | |
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cantsurf56
join:2003-07-23
New London, WI
|  Discovery Channel segment on Stratellite
»www.exn.ca/dailyplanet/view.asp?···25/2005#
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DSL/Speedstream/DI-614+/LAN | |
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Broadband By Blimp
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