Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights
The giant dirigible would use radar to closely and constantly monitor activity on the ground from 65,000 feet.In related orbital news, we see this story: Supermodel satellite set to fly
The Air Force has signed an agreement with DARPA to develop a demonstration dirigible by 2014. The prototype will be a third as long as the planned surveillance craft -- known as ISIS, for Integrated Sensor Is the Structure, because the radar system will be built into the structure of the ship.
The super-sleek spacecraft will go into orbit on a modified intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia.
Most satellites launched into space are ugly boxes. The European Space Agency's (Esa) Goce satellite is very different.
"This is the most beautiful satellite that has ever been built - and for good reason," enthused one of the scientists who conceived the mission, Reiner Rummel, from the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
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2 comments:
I hope that spying-on-citizens blimp never takes to the skies. A "goddess" in the heavens, "watching over" everyone besides those with power... They are for Sirius.
Well, there are already tons of spy satellites up there looking down on us 24/7, so I'm not sure why this is news. But I'm still just agog by how much crap is being put in orbit and the lame ISIS acronym was just the tip of the iceberg.
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