Originally Posted by
ORAC
The package suspended below the balloon is reported to be the size, and presumably the weight, of 3 buses.
That’s a very big balloon, as it would have to be to be visible from the ground at 60K feet.
More likely total mass 100kg or so, mostly the fabric envelope. The payload is probably just some solar panels on a carbon fibre spar, with a polystyrene crate in the middle housing the electronics and a few valves and a wee pump. Launching these things without mishandling them and damaging them at launch is not so simple.They are very fragile.
This thing is probably not dissimilar to the Loon ones, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loon_LLC . I had discussions with Loon at the very beginning of their project as they were looking for a energy solution.
If you read that link you'll begin to understand the control strategies so as to get these things to go (or stay) where you want them. Very approximately !