Science Fiction
Dictionary Latest By
"I received a nice letter the other day from the Dalai Lama. He had read 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. It is about a computer at a Tibetan monastery."
|
How could you provide line-of-sight communication without having to put satellite facilities into orbit?
The story also calls it a "television plane."
A considerable amount of research is going into the idea of aircraft that could circle slowly (and indefinitely) at high altitude, providing line-of-sight communication services like cell phones, or for surveillance purposes.
The remarkable Helios aircraft created by NASA is shown below; solar-powered and remotely piloted, it succeeded in reaching a maximum altitude of 97,000 feet.
(NASA Helios aircraft) In the picture shown above, Helios is at 10,000 feet northwest of Kauai, Hawaii in August 2001. It is poking along at just 25 miles per hour. Helios is an ultralight flying wing with 14 electric motors, built by AeroVironment Inc. Helios' 247 foot wide wing is covered with solar cells. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
resources: Stratovideo (Television Plane)-related
news articles:
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
Elon Musk Says Robotaxis Will Be Ready This August, 2024
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Moonwalkers AI-Controlled Electric Shoes
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
Steve Jobs: 'Capture The Next Aristotle - With AI'
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
No Tips! Robotic Food Delivery In Phoenix
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
Electric Catamaran 'Explorer Eco 40m' Has 'Solar Skin'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
Harvest Power From Tears And Blinking With Smart Contact Lens
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
|
Home | Glossary
| Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact
Us | FAQ | Advertise | Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™ Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved. |
||