First Antarctic Solar Weather Balloon Flight
The first 100% solar weather probe, named Ballon ORA, was launched from the French Antarctic Dumont d'Urville Station in January 2011, by a joint team of students, scientists and engineers. The idea was to assess the feasibility of using solar balloons as probes in remote area, where saving the use of lifting gas, helium or hydrogen, would be precious. The flight was a success, approaching 46,000 ft (14,000 m). The savings do not only concern the lifting gas in itself. The ORA Balloon alleviates the need for the transportation, in and out, of the heavy gas canisters.
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Famous quotes containing the words solar, weather, balloon and/or flight:
“Lincoln becomes the American solar myth, the chief butt of American credulity and sentimentality.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The weather is like the government, always in the wrong.”
—Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
“When I am on a stage, I am the focus of thousands of eyes and it gives me strength. I feel that something, some energy, is flowing from the audience into me. I actually feel stronger because of these waves. Now when the play’s done, the eyes taken away, I feel just as if a circuit’s been broken. The power is switched off. I feel all gone and empty inside of me—like a balloon that’s been pricked and the air’s let out.”
—Lynn Fontanne (1887–1983)
“One man’s observation is another man’s closed book or flight of fancy.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)