4/13/2005

Alternative To Satellites

Although satellites are cool and we love them, they are a bit costly and if something goes wrong, they are very difficult to repair. Telecom may have come out with a new low-cost alternative to space-based satellites. A new kind of airship called the Stratellite may be that alternative. Apparently, it's an unmanned, helium-filled airship that looks like a blimp and is capable of relaying signals for cell phones, video and the internet to an area the size of Texas. Could it be that satellites will be overrun by stratellites? What would happen to the economy? And I'm sure that if this happens, there will be more improvements on the blimps. Sounds pretty cool to me.

1 comment:

Dr. Tufte said...

You know, this idea has actually been around for a long time.

I don't know the details, but my suspicion is that there are costs here that are not obvious, which is why this technology has never gotten off the ground (no pun intended).