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In the near future, tourists seem excited through portholes above the Earth, delighted by the sight of starry darkness above and the curved blue horizon here below.
But this is not a spaceship, but a "globe from near space ". It was launched from Mongolia, not Houston, United States. And tourists are Chinese
In 1958, Russia surprised the world by launching Sputnik, the first satellite, in space. USA He was eager to create NASA to participate in the space race and became the largest space power in the world.
Satellites are essential for communications, climate monitoring, navigation and other tasks. But 60 years after Sputnik, high altitude balloons defy them
The balloons provide an observation point at 30 kilometers, a distance much smaller than that of satellites. They cost a fraction of their price and, unlike satellites, they can easily return to Earth for its update or repair.
Before the Pioneer Satellites Like Sputnik 3, the balloons paved the way for space racing. / Getty Images The balloons are huge. Some are seven times larger than St. Paul's Cathedral in London, they are filled with helium and made of plastic from the thickness of a sandwich.
Their weak point is that they can only be blown away by the wind, so the great breakthrough of recent years has been to learn how to steer them.
"We are learning a complete new navigation zone," said Jeffrey Manber, CEO of the American space company Nanoracks.
The upper atmosphere is called the stratosphere because it's "stratified ", Divided into several different layers and with winds blowing in different directions at different altitudes.
But with the necessary weather information, a balloon can go in the desired direction simply by moving to the correct altitude and
Emergency Assistance
The Loon project developed by Google is one of the first to exploit these opposing winds, with balloons at high altitude to provide communications. in remote or disaster-affected areas
The Loon Project was created in 20 13 by Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. Loon Project The original plan consisted of a series of balloons that followed the prevailing wind, but the researchers found that the balloons could be held in place by the use of compensatory winds at different heights.
Sophisticated automatic learning algorithms change pitch to take advantage of good wind.
This project managed to give access to 300,000 people in Puerto Rico after the destruction of Hurricane Maria its infrastructure last year.
For its part, World View, based in Tucson, USA, plans to use its balloons known as stratolites not only as transmitters of communication, but also as monitoring platforms. BBC Future visited its facilities in 2016.
"Applications are endless, from constant monitoring of forests to notification of emergency services in case of fire, seeing remote parts of the ocean in search of maritime pirates or monitor crop health in real time, "said Angelica DeLuccia Morrissey of World View.
Options for Military Use
Defense industry, for example, sees the stratoliths as the new eyes of the world.
The balloons of the Loon project have already been used in relief operations and emergency in a disaster situation. / Getty Images "We think this has the potential to bring a change to the game for us," said Kurt Tidd, commander of US Southern Command after a successful test flight of a stratolite.
The same technology could help track the weather in real time or get a close-up of a hurricane from the top.
The current stratoliths carry a load of 50 kilograms. Balloons capable of carrying larger loads are still in the planning phase.
Longer-term plans include near-space tourism and goods delivery. When his mission ends, a stratolite goes up to a certain point and parachutes to the ground.
The same technique could be used to deliver emergency supplies or other goods to remote locations all over the world.
Chinese competition
But there is increasing competition from China. Kuang-Chi Space (KC), founded in 2010, specializes in blimps and communications technology.
The company is developing its Traveler globe and its own version of stratospheric wind navigation.
"The initial goal in China is remote sensing and telecommunications, with clients including municipalities seeking to integrate Traveler into an urban system. smart, "says Zhou Fei, head of KC Space's R & D team.
Guarantees that it will cost between one-tenth and one-hundredth of a comparable satellite system.
Traveler will also carry a capsule with six pbadengers in the stratosphere. Last October, KC safely launched and recovered a balloon carrying a turtle at an altitude of 21 kilometers.
This could be converted to pbadenger flights in 2021, which would cost about US $ 96,600 per seat.
The Microsatellite Market
Fei says that Traveler could also be a "secondary launch" platform. This would mean launching a rocket over most of the Earth's atmosphere, from which it could fire a small rocket into orbit much more easily than from sea level.
This would be useful for the growing market of CubeSats microsatellites.
World View has completed a series of ambitious test flights over the past three years. / World View "One of the holy grails in the world is to be able to reduce the cost of launching a small CubeSat into orbit," says Jeffrey Manber, whose company Nanoracks is working with KC on the Traveler program.
The Chinese army is also interested in "close space". Nobody still controls this area, and stratospheric balloons provide an economical way for military surveillance and other uses.
After the Russian Sputnik showed the world what satellites could do, He overcame it in the race for space. In the near future, more and more stratospheric balloons will appear focused on near-space tourism, communication or surveillance.
The race in close space is in progress and, although the United States is currently the leader, China is catching up quickly.
You can read the original note in English at BBC Future.
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