World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

[montanar]

http://www.google.com/loon/ is informative about the technology being deployed by the Google team. By the way their project is going viral, first time I accessed the side yesterday at the time of my previous post you tube gave 25000 hits, a few hours later I had another look and it was double that at 50000 hits. Today barely 24 hrs later it is going stratospheric at 250000 hits.

There is an animated cartoon that shows how the stratospheric balloons can be kept not in geostationary position but somewhat on site by using many of them and maintaining coverage on a widely defined geographical area by changing the altitude of the ballons.

This allow opposite jet stream winds to direct the balloons in a kind of dance where they move back and forth as the float in as swarming formation.

Behind the project there is obviously considerable science. It reminds me of the planning going on for the America's cup: the amount of science going into weather and in particular the study of dominant winds, sails, sea conditions is phenomenal.

When it comes to navigating strat loons, google has done due diligence and are testing their plan right now. Today is officially the first day. The "Festival of Flight" in Canterbury, NZ with the launching in the early morning was with a crowd and the hype has just started. Some of the photos are sheer beauty to contemplate.

Now, given a deep knowledge and mapping of the winds in the stratosphere, there must be above Canterbury the right conditions to have these loons moving back and forth, with little risk for collateral damage if loons stray, as NZ is at the other end of the world.

Google is actively recruiting test pilots in the area, which means there is some time (in weeks at least) for testing, even if a jet stream speed can easily peak above 130 km/hr the loons are going to stay there and NOT fly away around the world.

What a brilliant simple idea, using the jet stream currents and go with the wind back and forth.

Now the extensive photovoltaic element of the payload indicates each balloon can generate and store an important amount of energy.

What for? Two things definitely: 1) communication but more importantly 2) energy to heat the envelope and the gas inside. During the day loons go down, during the night loons go up. Using thermal energy to the advantage of navigation control. Each daily change in altitude resulting in catching an opposing jet stream, resulting in an inversion in direction....... so as to remain hovering above the same Canterbury area of NZ.

Navigation challenges reduced to basic hot air balloon flying!!!

The site is in English and Spanish, we are talking about 40 degrees latitude South jet stream navigation. Like in sailing the roaring 40s, that is the be all and end all of any sailor who wants to test his limits. I love it. And of course Argentina could be next.

Anybody wanting to be a test pilot?

Very long message, just got carried away.

As to WSGI, we may stand a chance but in any case it is all good publicity on LTA platforms. This is going to be phenomenal and a bonus for those in the industry including WSGI.

GLTA

Monty


All of this is just brain storming but it does make sense.