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pagade | 1 year ago

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?

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tndl|1 year ago

Sure thing! They're made of about 300 grams of polyethylene. Towards the end of their lifespan, we can steer them to an area that's easy for us to drive out and pick them up. The payload has a GPS, which lets us track where they are both in the sky and on the ground.

Right now, most weather balloons fall back to Earth and stay where they land unless someone happens across them (since they can't be controlled and only last a couple of hours).

mariushn|1 year ago

How do you control the altitude? I would imagine 'heat/cool the air inside the baloon', but this would be too energy intensive?

Congratulations for a great non-saas market and product!

DAlperin|1 year ago

> we can steer them to an area that's easy for us to drive out and pick them up.

What does this look like in practice? As you mentioned I know you don't really have any lateral control, but I imagine you can wait for it to overfly somewhere convenient to descend?