What I want to do

Report on Solar Balloon session by @nshapiro, Nick Shapiro, at 2015 Pub Lab Barnraiser. I also want to point to Mathew Lippincott and 2015 Public Lab Barnraising team's preparation and then launch of solar balloon.

Our attempt and results

Video playlist

Photos

Resources:

Search for World-renowned artist Tomás Saraceno re: the architectures of flying buildings, spider webs and solar balloons.

Dave Manthos work overflying Bakken shale fields.

Underwater Gliders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider This is a good analogy for balloon gliders.

Deep critique, provacative thinking, art as transformative re: transport, fuel use, personal and global impacts at all levels.

While Nick and Mathew entered to fix hole, "If we all were to get in, our collective aspirations might kill us"

Discussed materials (not currently available for extended durations, however year-long durations acheived) and approaches to try to apply these or other balloons in variety of environmental contexts.

Work overflying Bakken shale fields noted, successfully demonstrated by Dave Manthos, though resulting IR imagery not what they would of liked. See: http://skytruth.org/author/david-manthosskytruth-org/page/2/

Multiple project scenarios: global circumnavigation, communications, pirate radio; human travel, smaller oceanography monitoring, more personalized open to people to make with trash, found materials, etc.

Ideas from underwater gliders potential applicability

Potential use of variation in color/blackness for navigation control, as in prior art patent challenge of shocking Google initiative.

@mathew offered to make balloons for small solar balloons projects, particularly for altitude controls

@mathew noted currently used in free flight, with control tether, such that takedown system takes down the balloon; but as in get-away yesterday best in no or very low wind regimes. Potentially could use a timed takedown system.

Questions and next steps

Explore the use of these solar balloons.

Why I'm interested

These solar balloons encourage us to think differently. Deep critique, provacative thinking, art as transformative re: transport, fuel use, personal and global impacts at all levels.