DARPA’s surveillance balloons hover at the very edge of space in one spot indefinitely.

turkeydance

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quote:
It is currently testing a wind sensor that could allow devices in its Adaptable Lighter-Than-Air (ALTA) balloon program to spot wind speed and direction
from a great distance and then make the necessary adjustments to stay in one spot. DARPA has been working on ALTA for some time, but its existence was only revealed in September.
link:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...ide-the-wind-so-they-never-have-to-come-down/
 
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If perfected this could have significant impacts on telecommunications. I worked on a stratospheric comm platform concept back in the late 90’s but we were ahead of technology.

Coupled with a phased array antenna system, this technology could open up telecom coverage anywhere.
 
If perfected this could have significant impacts on telecommunications. I worked on a stratospheric comm platform concept back in the late 90’s but we were ahead of technology.

Coupled with a phased array antenna system, this technology could open up telecom coverage anywhere.

And it's got to be cheaper to loft than satellite constellations.
 
And it's got to be cheaper to loft than satellite constellations.

Yup, not to mention maintenance is easier. Stratospheric comm platforms are only about 11 miles up. From an RF perspective, that’s an easy signal hop with limited interference. Moving beam phased array antenna system technology becomes in play though.
 
And high speed low latency internet for red necks in the sticks like us. Biggest problem with satellite based connections is latency which makes apps like telecom/videocoms and real time gaming impractical. This is ten times closer than low earth orbit and about 170 times closer than geosynchronous.
 
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And high speed low latency internet for red necks in the sticks like us. Biggest problem with satellite based connections is latency which makes apps like telecom/videocoms and real time gaming impractical. This is ten times closer than low earth orbit and about 1700 times closer than geosynchronous.

And cheap enough for decent numbers of them for better coverage. Maybe we need to convince Trump to remove the "homework gap" by spamming rural areas with internet balloons.
 
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