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Awesome project. I currently work on flight data recorders. As you are aware, weather plays a big part in aviation. We do collect some weather information and it’s always one of the more exciting topics in the work we do. Understand a lot of the pain points with data and satellite communication. Sounds like something to keep my eye on.
as someone who's worked on a project involving weather data for agriculture over developing regions, I can't explain how bad (sparse and inconsistent) the data is. Can I ask how you handled the regulatory aspect of launching from urban areas in SF? I can imagine the FAA would have given you some trouble?
[0](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F...)
To a layperson like me, could you explain how these balloons will be cleaned up / collected after their life? What material are they made up of?
Are you hiring? This is really exciting work.
This is incredibly cool! Are you hiring? This is really exciting work.
"Worldwide, most radiosonde observations are taken daily at 00Z and 12Z (6 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST)" - NOAA.gov
I know we get more weather data from other sources, but it seems insane that these 2 launch times per day (per balloon location) are what make up most of our current weather forecasting data.
You mentioned solar. Do you have the capability (or plans) to run these over night as well?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, and not just building more in more at-risk places but also the cost of building materials, construction labor and code compliance requirements have all generally increased more than baseline inflation. Factors like these tend to greatly increase recent estimates vs historical. I read a paper a few years back which dove into how the data sources for weather damage assessment have changed a lot over the years.…
> Factors like these mean in prior decades the total damage costs may have been more similar to today's than they appear but a lot of the damage data we gather and report now wasn't counted or gathered then This is definitely part of it. Another part is that people live in more at-risk regions now than in the past (Florida is a great example, population has more than 10x'd since 1950). Ultimately, the way we think ab…
I agree. My point was only so those surprised by the massive increase in cost estimates can put those numbers in perspective since neither the average quantity nor severity of adverse weather events have changed substantially over the decades.
Providing more granular data to enable more accurate and timely weather forecasts is a sound business thesis even if adverse weather isn't happening 2x more frequently or energetically. It's still a large economic impact where money can be saved. More broadly, better forecasts can improve agricultural yields, reduce business disruption and increase throughput of transportation networks.
This is awesome, nice work! In case it's useful, I made a Python package for calculating solar irradiance at altitude: https://github.com/gusgordon/airmass Takes into account lots of stuff (e.g. attenuation from air, ozone, and water vapor) with the goal of estimating solar power at any altitude/latitude/day/time.
Very cool! Are you working on some kind of airborne solar platform?
Seems feasible, never went past the analysis phase though :)
This is one of the most fascinating Launch HNs in a while. Excited to follow your progress and congrats on the launch!
This is awesome, how do you manage climbing and descending with a balloon. Are you compressing the gas on board or using thermals?
How we make it go up and down is the secret sauce :) I'm a hangglider guy, so I'd love to be using thermals, but I can say that's not how we do it right now
I'm picturing having a few dozen at launch site containers, launching them at the start of a day of flying, having them programmed to land in a rural area that a member can pick them up from and return to the launch sites.