What Does a Balloon Maker Do?
Why are balloon communications developing satellite communications today so aggressively in the United States, France, and other countries? This is because although satellite communication is the future development direction, due to the balloon communication system, compared with the current satellite and terrestrial retransmission towers, it has many unique advantages and is considered to be a fast and cost-effective way to develop communication at present. method.
Balloon communication
- More economical than satellite communications
- Compared with satellite communication, balloon communication system has the following characteristics:
The technology is simple to issue and easy to launch communication satellites. It requires a large launch vehicle, reliable control equipment, precise telecommunication instruments, etc. The technology is complex and difficult, and it is not available in every country or in a short time. Compared with balloon communication,
- In foreign countries, the development of tethered balloons has a long history. As early as 1783, France used captive balloons for manned flight for the first time. Tethered balloons have since been used for military reconnaissance and other purposes. European and American countries have successively established balloon corps. But at that time, the shape of the balloon was round and its performance was poor. In 1896, Germany began to manufacture ellipsoid balloons, similar to spindles, which were more stable in the wind. But tethered balloons are used for communication in recent years. With the development of modern technology, the improvement of material technology, the application of computer in design,
- Balloon communication
Since 1966, the Department of Defense's Prospective Research and Planning Bureau has started to develop tethered balloons for the purpose of promoting the war of aggression in Southeast Asia. It is believed that using a tethered balloon as a communication relay station is easy to establish and convenient to transfer, and can provide a rapid means of communication for the military. The US Army was used near the battlefield. The US Navy has long been considering using this system for internal communications of the task force. The U.S. Air Force also considers using a captive balloon as an air defense radar on the southern border of the United States to warn against low-altitude attacks. The United States installed a special radar using moving target indicator technology on a mooring balloon. Since the radar itself is stationary, it can detect even slow movements of troops. According to the United States Department of Defense estimates, the use of this tethered balloon communication system in places where low-altitude surveillance is required is only one-tenth the cost of ordinary aircraft. In 1972, the United States established a company specializing in tethered balloon communication systems, called Tecom Inc., with an increasing scale. In the fall of 1973, the United States established the first tethered balloon communication station on the Grand Bahama Island, which is more than 200 nautical miles away from its mainland. This is also the first tethered balloon communication system in the world to be put into practical use. The TV and communication problems that had been unavailable in the continental United States have been resolved, and microwave communication links have been established with Nassau, more than 200 kilometers away. The United States has also begun research on stratospheric tethered balloon communications.
In early 1975 in South Korea, the United States helped establish a tethered balloon communication station for civilian telephone, television, and radio broadcasting. The balloon is 54 meters long, has a volume of 7,000 cubic meters, is filled with helium, and has a payload of 1,600 kilograms. It stays at a height of 3 kilometers through a plastic rope and has a broadcast area of more than 120,000 square kilometers, which is larger than the entire area of South Korea. It's still thirty percent bigger.
The southeastern and southwestern parts of Iran are mostly hills and mountains, with a sparse population, nomadic areas, and high mobility of people. It is not economical or applicable to establish a ground relay station. In 1976, the United States helped Iran establish two tethered balloon communication stations in Zapouli, Balochistan Province and Daya, Persian Gulf Province, each broadcasting two television programs and two radio programs. The coverage area totaled over 240,000 square kilometers.
Nigeria signed a contract with the United States in 1976 to set up five tethered balloon communication stations across the country, which are scheduled to be completed in 1979 to provide television, radio, and communications across the country. And prepare to contact the international communication satellite, carry on the satellite communication rebroadcast, establish a national balloon broadcasting and communication network.
France France has earlier research on balloon communication, and unlike the United States, it has studied the development of high-altitude stratosphere balloon communication systems from the beginning. This balloon communication system is tied at an altitude of about 20 kilometers, with a broadcasting radius of more than 500 kilometers. It has a "research on replacing satellite observation and broadcasting with helium-filled tethered balloons" called the "Esso" project. The National Space Research Center and the National Meteorological Administration are jointly responsible for the development. The whole plan is divided into three steps:
The first step, in June 1970, a spherical mooring balloon was tested in Corsica, France, with a working height of 13 kilometers. In October 1971, in French Guiana, the The balloon was tethered to an altitude of 18 kilometers and tested.
The second step is to use an ellipsoidal balloon with vertical and horizontal tails at the rear to maintain the direction. The test was conducted in Brittany, France, the working height reached 18 kilometers, the effective load was one ton, and the broadcasting radius was more than 500 kilometers. Cost of 90,000 to 180,000 francs. It is planned to be put into use in 1975.
The third step is to use a helium-filled balloon without a tether and stay at a height of 20 kilometers. The balloon relies on its own power system to keep relatively stationary with the ground for communication and broadcast. The power supply was changed to ground microwave power supply, which is planned to be completed in 1980.