Pretty cool, although it's polluting so hopefully it wouldn't become too popular (probably not).
"And because such diminutive payloads don’t pose a danger to aircraft" even though they are small and wouldn't make a plane crash, I can imagine they would cause some damage if they ever enter a jet engine, although that would be unlucky as they would mostly fly higher than aircraft. I also wouldn't like it to fall on my head, but with the solar panels as depicted and the small weight I suppose it could somewhat glide.
This sounds so cool!
> I’m a little puzzled about the balloons’ telemetry messages received on the WSPR network, as they have been few and far between.
But wouldn't there be a way to send messages to Starlink satellites instead of WSPR? Is it a problem of power consumption?
Very cool! Brings this to mind: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/object-us-mi...
Pretty cool, although it's polluting so hopefully it wouldn't become too popular (probably not).
"And because such diminutive payloads don’t pose a danger to aircraft" even though they are small and wouldn't make a plane crash, I can imagine they would cause some damage if they ever enter a jet engine, although that would be unlucky as they would mostly fly higher than aircraft. I also wouldn't like it to fall on my head, but with the solar panels as depicted and the small weight I suppose it could somewhat glide.
QRPLabs sell even lighter trackers https://www.qrp-labs.com/u4b.html
and AFAIK are the goto supplier for HAB (High Altitude Ballooning) enthusiasts.