there's a lot of interest in making the space balloon (or floating island) project but i feel a little unsure of it for some reason ... i think i'm worried that the challenge and danger of going into upper altitudes make an issue with my dissociative-identity-palsy
one idea is a small zeppelin or blimp drone that could be remotely contacted and would hold supplies up in the air
considering a little bit the idea of a zeppelin-or-blimp-drone-for-high-altitude-projects [...
basically we'd need something that can compress into a pocket, and also self-navigate :s i'm not sure of all the constraints but it sounds like there are more options
this means making navigation work! it would need a power supply as well as thrust.
we could assume that it has the option of some kind of powered home. for example, it could optionally have a tether with a wire that plugs into an electrical outlet and charges it. i dunno if that would give it enough power to travel a long distance though. it'd be nice if it could travel a thousand miles. but i suppose it's fine if it does it slowly.
it kind of seems like it would have to be solar-powered and go slowly!
and it would be messy cause it's like preprototype! although that could possibly change. i'm avoiding making it into a robot to make it seem easier to reach
so basically a solar panel might hang from a balloon and ... hrm ...
ok 4 challenges: - brains/remote control - horizontal propulsion and direction - vertical ascent/descent (possibly optional? maybe i could catch it with a kite or something?) - power
if we skip vertical assent and give it a low altitude (??? is this reasonable? i guess the altitude would be defined by air density?) then we might have say an arduino on a balloon with 4 directional fans affixed to it and a solar panel hanging from the bottom. and like a sealed lead acid battery and a couple buck boost regulators. and a simple 8-line motor control board to turn the fans on and off.
something i left out is communication. this is an important thing missing from a bare arduino. there could be a long antenna that drags to connect to public wifi. i'm inhibited around making autonomous wifi-associating software, but there may be commercial solutions that solve that. another option is a prepaid sim. this seems most normal. likely a prepaid data plan would last an incredibly long time for a slow balloon that only had gps data and power metrics to communicate. additionally, since it has simple 3-state motors already, one could add a spool of long thread with a plumb attached. until it breaks, it could possibly deploy the spool to be retrieved. this could possibly also be used to change the height of a draped solar panel or antenna. if one only had 8 channels of power control, then one could compromise with 3 directional motors rather than 2. so, electrical parts: - arduino or other SOC - sim card add-on to SOC if doesn't come with - gps add-on to SOC if doesn't come with - prepaid data sim - configure arduino to listen on the sim via e.g. SSH while powered - test that one can connect to SOC via sim - motor control hardware for SOC with at least 4-5 three-state channels (maybe plan for 8-10 to add options implementing 3-state control unless it comes with this) - sealed lead acid battery (could use lithium ion for lightweightness if needed) - 2 buck-boost regulators, one to float the battery, another to power the SOC unless it takes the battery voltage - 4-5 motors; 1 sturdy and slow to raise/lower something below the object, the rest speedy and powerful to push it through the air - spool and turbines for the motors to drive - solar panel - fine and rugged polyester twine to hang panel and tether from - wiring - liftable balloon [also need structure, a way to attach everything to the balloon; one could lash them with polyester twine, possibly, or make a frame and attach them and the balloon to the frame if you make a frame you get to call it a 'zeppelin' instead of a 'blimp' i think [...