New Mars Forums

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Solar-Powered Blimp:  Fly for a Year

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/balloon-05b.html]Click

*Searched for this article.  I can't find that it's been recently/previously posted.

Filled with helium, could remain geostationary for a year.  65,000 ft. altitude.

uses solar cells for power, could have applications in surveillance, homeland security, missile defense and weather forecasting.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Solar-Powered Blimp:  Fly for a Year

I had not seen that one but had seen a few others and had post simular thoughts in a couple other threads before.

Cover the top of the balloon with a thin film solar cells and make an electrical heater element to make the co2 rise to provide the lift. Or possibly use some form of nuclear reaction to generate the heat.

Dirigibles on Mars, A practical means of transport

Not quite out of this world

Next month Sanswire Networks, a company based in Atlanta, Georgia, is planning to launch the first airship satellite, or “stratellite”. Floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20km (13 miles), the airship will behave just like a geostationary satellite, hovering over a particular spot and relaying radio signals to and from the ground. Such airships will, however, be much cheaper to launch and maintain than satellites—and can do things that satellites cannot.

Another is JP Aerospace The Ascender, Near Space Maneuvering Vehicle

The Ascender is an airship designed to fly at extreme altitudes.  It is a telecommunications tool, a rocket launch platform and the first stage in the ATO program.

Earthfirst

Member

From: Phoenix Arizona

Registered: 2002-09-25

Posts: 343

Re: Solar-Powered Blimp:  Fly for a Year

Many years ago 1998 or so people in phoenix and many places in the southwest saw strange lights in the sky from what looked like a big UFO. I have all wise thought that the airforce has gaint stealth blimps that it uses for spying. What better way to test it then to fly it over large cities. I have hread that blimps are coming back into their own now. Gaint stealth blimps are the perfect spy plate froms, the are cheaper than planes and stallites, and more stable. One could hover for days above a city and spy on the people and release contrials to gas the people.

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I love plants!