Subject: [gaia] balloon networking

From: "Paul M. Aoki" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:14:25 -0800

(1) i don't work for or with project loon.  the following is fully 
public information and nothing below should be interpreted as being 
particularly relevant to loon in any way.

(2) it is common and useful to distinguish between quasi-stationary 
systems (tethered blimps, powered blimps and drones) from free-floating 
systems.  the former tends to go by the name "high altitude platform" 
and over the years there have been (for example) whole EC research 
progams on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_platform

i'm not going to comment on the relative merits of the two approaches 
but they have very different properties.

(3) the earliest public document i've seen (1990) describing a 
free-floating, stratospheric balloon constellation for communication is 
online at:

http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/6525013

A system architecture for long duration free floating flight for 
military applications

Accessibility is today's space frontier. Our need for wide-band global 
communications, earth imaging and sensing, atmospheric measurements and 
military reconnaissance is endless but growing dependence on space-based 
systems raises concerns about potential vulnerability. Military 
commanders want space assets more accessible and under direct local 
control. As a result, a robust and low cost access to space-like 
capability has become a national priority. Buoyant vehicles, free 
floating in the middle stratosphere could provide the kind of cost 
effective access to space-like capability needed for a variety of 
missions. These vehicles are inexpensive, invisible and easily launched. 
Developments in payload electronics, atmospheric wind modeling and 
materials combined with ever-improving communications and navigation 
infrastructure are making balloon-borne concepts more attractive. The 
fundamental question is whether a free floating balloon, used in a 
pseudo-satellite role, has value in a military system. Flight tests are 
ongoing under NASA sponsorship. Following these tests NASA intends to 
use the vehicles for research in the Antarctic. The concept is being 
reviewed by other agencies interested in stratospheric research. We 
believe that LDFFF systems have applications in areas of communications, 
surveillance and other traditional satellite missions. Dialogue with the 
broader community of  space users is needed to expand the applications. 
This report reviews the status of the recent flight tests and presents 
an overview of the concept of Long Duration Free Floating Flight for 
military applications.

Authors:	Epley, L.E. (CIRRUS Aerospace Corp., Burke, VA (USA))
Publication Date:	1990-08-31
OSTI Identifier:	OSTI ID: 6525013

-- 
Paul M. Aoki <[email-masked]>
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043-1351 USA

---

From: "Steven G. Huter" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 13:06:19 -0800 (PST)

Very informative - thank you, Paul.

Steve Huter, NSRC
http://nsrc.org/

On Tue, 4 Mar 2014, Paul M. Aoki wrote:

> (1) i don't work for or with project loon.  the following is fully public 
> information and nothing below should be interpreted as being particularly 
> relevant to loon in any way.
>
> (2) it is common and useful to distinguish between quasi-stationary systems 
> (tethered blimps, powered blimps and drones) from free-floating systems.  the 
> former tends to go by the name "high altitude platform" and over the years 
> there have been (for example) whole EC research progams on them.
>
> i'm not going to comment on the relative merits of the two approaches but 
> they have very different properties.
>
> (3) the earliest public document i've seen (1990) describing a free-floating, 
> stratospheric balloon constellation for communication is online at:
>
> A system architecture for long duration free floating flight for military 
> applications
>
> systems raises concerns about potential vulnerability. Military commanders 
> want space assets more accessible and under direct local control. As a 
> result, a robust and low cost access to space-like capability has become a 
> national priority. Buoyant vehicles, free floating in the middle stratosphere 
> could provide the kind of cost effective access to space-like capability 
> needed for a variety of missions. These vehicles are inexpensive, invisible 
> and easily launched. Developments in payload electronics, atmospheric wind 
> modeling and materials combined with ever-improving communications and 
> navigation infrastructure are making balloon-borne concepts more attractive. 
> The fundamental question is whether a free floating balloon, used in a 
> ongoing under NASA sponsorship. Following these tests NASA intends to use the 
> vehicles for research in the Antarctic. The concept is being reviewed by 
> other agencies interested in stratospheric research. We believe that LDFFF 
> systems have applications in areas of communications, surveillance and other 
> traditional satellite missions. Dialogue with the broader community of  space 
> users is needed to expand the applications. This report reviews the status of 
> the recent flight tests and presents an overview of the concept of Long 
> Duration Free Floating Flight for military applications.
>
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