Go higher. If you search for "high altitude wind" you'll get info from 20,000 feet, which is not at all the same as 20,000 meters. Past a point, the thinning at

Go higher. If you search for "high altitude wind" you'll get info from 20,000 feet, which is not at all the same as 20,000 meters. Past a point, the thinning atmosphere actually means less coupling and wind speed decreases. You'll note that tiny quote halfway through about it being difficult to get up to the required altitude of 20km. That's because the average wind speed bottoms out around 5 meters per second at an altitude between 20km and 25km [1]. Add in the thinning air reducing drag and, yeah, a solar-powered balloon can absolutely stationkeep at that altitude. Here's a wiki page with more links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_balloon_satellite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_balloon_satellit... [1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-wind-speed-in-the-stratosphere-is-minimal-at-altitudes-of-about-20-km-Values_fig1_226740506 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-wind-speed-in-th...