Re: [amsat-bb] I have an idea. Please read

["JC Smith" <jc-smith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

An unpiloted aircraft could be built to fly at 60,000 ft.  On solar power?
Maybe... if you had NASA's budget.  It would be easier to launch a couple
more P3 satellites, and we all know how easy that is ;-)

73 - JC,k0hps@amsat.org


----- Original Message -----
From: David M. Tipton, PhD <tiptond@psi.com>
To: Keith Randino <krandino@snet.net>
Cc: AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2000 4:44 AM
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] I have an idea. Please read


> I like the idea, however question the ability to keep an aircraft of any
> type aloft at those altitudes..  I have had similar thoughts in the past.
> One such thought was in that if you had the thing up there, you could have
> it do nothing other than circling in a small tight pattern, thus giving
> the illusion of being stationary.  Couple that with a few others and you
> could develop a truely wide area repeator system suitable for all kinds of
> stuff...
>
> Dave
>
> On Sat, 10 Jun 2000, Keith Randino wrote:
>
> > I have been thinking now for several months about a plan that I have.
> > I am posting it on this board because I believe that much of the
expertise
> > needed for a project like this resides on this board. This is not
completely
> > flushed out but I believe that it is certainly something that could be
done
> > and
> > is technically possible and probably should be  done. Here goes. I have
been
> > considering the possiblilty that this group or a derivative should try
to
> > launch a solar
> > power aircraft with battery backup that would spend its time slowly
circling
> > around an
> > area above 60000 feet with FM repeater equipment on board. I believe the
> > expense
> > of such a project would be several orders of magnitude cheaper than a
> > satelite system
> > and launch. It could be brought back down for repairs or different
missions
> > setups and be
> > relaunched just like any remotely piloted vehicle. It would have a huge
> > ground
> > footprint and several of them could be linked to cover vast distances
and
> > huge areas. I
> > believe that the FAA doesn't care much about what happens above 60000
feet
> > and that would
> > allow us to do just about whatever we wanted to above that altitude. I
have
> > not
> > researched this entirely nor have I checked what the FCC regulations are
> > that are involved.
> > I believe that whatever they are they would be surmountable. I am not
> > glossing over the
> > technical challenges either. The air is quite thin at these altitudes
and
> > the technical challenges
> > would be considerable but the rewards would also be significant. Please
let
> > me know what
> > you think about this. I welcome any replies. I know that a lot of work
would
> > be needed but I
> > really think that a system like this would have substantial rewards.
> > Everything from emergency
> > communications to APRS and digital not to mention GPS, SSTV, real time
> > video,
> > automatic navigation and more could be involved. While this is not
entirely
> > flushed out I do know
> > more than I am writting about now. I just want to see what the comments
are
> > and if this
> > has any interest to anyone.
> >
> > Thanks for reading this,
> > 73,
> > Keith
> > N1XTK
> >
> >
> > ----
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> >
>
> ----
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