A Colorado-based company has invented a system that can offer far higher-resolution pictures from high-altitude balloons than satellites. In addition, the reusability of balloons allows for significantly cheaper cost images than satellites, drones, or aircraft.
Urban Sky, created by two veterans of World View, another stratospheric ballooning company, is taking a different approach to high-altitude images. The business has created a balloon system known as “Microballoons,” which soar to altitudes of roughly 20 kilometers while carrying an image payload.
A Microballon system consists of a reusable stratosphere balloon and a payload module with a high-resolution optical camera staring down. Additional imaging sensors, such as infrared or hyperspectral cameras, can also be used.
The 2.5-meter-diameter (8.2-foot) balloon is half-filled with helium gas, and its capacity grows as it rises from the moving launching point. The helium expands after reaching the target height to fill the present 5.5 m (18 foot) balloon (18,288 m). The excess gas then escapes through a vent deliberately placed near the balloon’s bottom. Since the volume of gas is constant, the balloon remains at the desired height.
Finally, the Microballoon camera captures images with its lens, which can withstand the extreme conditions of spaceflight. As the balloon floats horizontally in the air, the camera follows it. The photos are then digitally blended to create a single image with no gaps in any impacted areas. According to Andrew Antonio, co-founder and CEO of Urban Sky, this setup can sketch approximately 1,000 square kilometers per hour.
After the photo session is finished, the ground team activates the payload module to remove itself from the bottom of the balloon. However, one line flows from the module up one side of the Microballoon to the balloon’s covering.
Then, it pulls the balloon around to the upside-down position, allowing all of the helium within to escape. Next, the parachute is fitted downward, lowering the load module and the balloon. Both are taken to be reused once they have landed back.
According to Antonio, the Microballoon system has been used by some clients and should be used across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region by next year.
Moreover, the company has also been given a contract by the United States Air Force to develop a version of the system for real-time forest fire monitoring and funding from the National Science Foundation.
Source: Urban Sky