BalloonsInVLEO

3 ms·

1.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
I'm talking all up costs (cost to first pixels), so the cost to acquire a bus and payload then launch it vs buy a balloon with an imager payload and release it. Any comparable satellite right now is likely closer to hundreds of millio
2.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
There are atomic oxygen issues for VLEO sats, the front of the satellite slowly corrodes away from the impacts. They're longer lived than current balloons but mission lifetimes more than low single digit years aren't really feasi
3.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
Right now they fly for months, but years is possible with the right design. The can sometimes leak slightly but they make up for it by dispensing small amounts of ballast material.
4.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
All the companies I know of are US based. That said if you know what you're doing it's much lower risk than a satellite venture
5.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
I've seen various balloons more or less constantly spook the UFO people. There are a few designs that don't look like a traditional balloon so everyone thinks they're some sort of cloaking field or something
6.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
That info would strangely enough dox me/be a trade secret but there are companies doing both exempt and non exempt, and both have GSD better than any commercial satellite
7.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
We already have fully autonomous space drone swarms armed with nuclear warheads, we just keep them underground/underwater because...humans are weird.
8.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
Yup, I've worked on both and the balloons are generally just better platforms given current constraints. They can actually be steered rather accurately, if you're ever bored go look at the ADSB logs of the Aerostar balloons, they
9.
by BalloonsInVLEO 2y ago
Nope! Weirdly, I'm probably the one person who's worked extensively with both paradigms... There are several players in the balloon market spinning up. It's becoming very hot very fast. The balloons in question are much smar