But while we may have crossed a technological threshold that greatly increases the viability of high-altitude balloons, harnessing the power of this inhospitable domain will depend in part on conquering meteorology and physics. In regard to the operational and tactical levels of war, this technology could allow commanders to surge mission-tailored effects on demand, augment network capacity, quickly reconstitute lost assets, and integrate payloads into dedicated mission architectures-and do it at a fraction of the cost of satellites. As the space domain becomes increasingly precarious, balloons offer resilience and redundancy against overhead capability shortfalls.
3 Intuitively, balloons at such heights could perform missions such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, communications, missile warning, and precision navigation and timing. While each design presents unique engineering and operational opportunities, the balloon design is the focus of this essay. 2 The LTA design is a balloon-centric vehicle containing an altitude-controlling expansive element (usually helium or hydrogen) that provides lift. The HTA crafts are closer to a classic aircraft design, dependent on long wingspans, commensurately long solar arrays, and propellers to maintain sufficient speed to prevent stalling. The High-Altitude DomainĪlso called “near space,” high altitude most commonly refers to the upper stratosphere roughly from sixty thousand to one hundred thousand feet above the ground, and there are two starkly different designs competing for dominance: heavier than air (HTA) and lighter than air (LTA). This article characterizes the high-altitude domain, explains recent scientific advances that are finally enabling the technology, and identifies the risks of pursuing high altitude for military use. This same grit and persistence is necessary to master the high-altitude domain with other vehicles adapted to the task. 1 It would be over two hundred years before the Soviets would begin to harness this aspect of the space domain theorized by Newton with the first satellite, Sputnik, igniting the space race that produced manned spaceflight and today’s ubiquitous orbiting satellite capabilities.įor the United States, conquering the space domain with its own satellites required political will, deliberate and targeted government investment, and incremental technical progress.
#ULTRA BALLOON EN LINEA FREE#
Isaac Newton first theorized in 1687 that a projectile shot with enough force would break free of Earth’s gravity, subsequently falling into continuous orbit. The potential for change is much greater than our appetite for it.
military has periodically explored the practicality of employing high-altitude balloons and other similar vehicles for a range of applications including using them as cost-effective platforms to launch other flight vehicles into space. The balloon, almost as large as one and one-half football fields, soared for nearly forty-two days, making three orbits around the South Pole. The U.S. Flying near the edge of space, a NASA Ultra-Long Duration Balloon broke the flight record for duration and distance.
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