04.07.05
Arizona Republic
Valley Company's Balloons May Aid GIs' Communication
Stephanie Paterik
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 7, 2005 12:00 AM
When Space Data Corp. tried to persuade people in the 1990s that rubber balloons, not cell towers or satellites, were the best way to support two-way communication, it was a tough sell, to say the least.
Now that the Chandler company's balloons are over seven states and the Gulf of Mexico, skepticism is fading and the military and the Department of Homeland Security are considering the quirky technology to solve serious problems.
Representatives from the Air Force, Army and Navy flew in for a demonstration last month and are negotiating with Space Data. They could tap the balloons as early as fall to drastically improve ground communication between troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, where mountains and buildings limit two-way radio signals.
It wouldn't be the first time the military turned to balloons. Civil War troops used hot-air balloons to observe the enemy, and the Navy used spy blimps in the mid-1900s.
Using balloons as virtual satellites would be a first, however, and it would mark a return to simple, inexpensive technology in battle.
"Prior to the end of the Cold War, all threats were global and satellites were big," said Gerald Knoblach, chairman and chief executive officer of Space Data. "Now, every threat we see today is a small, Western state-size country that can be covered with two or three near-space systems (balloons)."
Such balloons cost $5,000 to $25,000 each, a fraction of the millions it takes to launch a satellite.
The concept is simple. A tactical commander who needed 12 hours of coverage would fill a 6-foot wide balloon with helium or hydrogen, attach a Styrofoam carton with a radio inside and release it. The craft would float to a region called "near space," about 100,000 feet above sea level or three times as high as airplanes, increasing troop's radio range from about 12 miles to 400 miles.
After the batteries ran out, the radio would drop to Earth by parachute and could be recovered with GPS technology or programmed to self-destruct.
Space Data repeats that process daily for its commercial customers, including SkyTel and several oil companies from Arizona to Arkansas.
It steers the balloons and tracks them on computers and projection screens from its south Chandler facility.
"The challenge is to fit an entire Space Data in a suitcase for two guys in a Humvee," said Eric Frische, chief technical officer.
Capt. David Donahue, project officer for the Air Force Space Battlelab in Colorado, said the military wants the technology to be more user-friendly. A parachute that could be steered, for instance, could help troops recover discarded radios.
Tech. Sgt. Deacon Hoffman of Fort Carson, Colo., was sold on the balloons after seeing the demonstration in Chandler. He served in Iraq and said soldiers there desperately need better radio communication. Radio waves are limited to line-of-sight, often no more than 15 miles in the region.
U.S. Border Patrol agents face similar problems along Mexican and Canadian borders, where cellphone coverage is limited and radio transmission is spotty. The Department of Homeland Security is talking with Space Data about testing the technology, Frische said.
Space Data set out to partner with commercial carriers, but it will evolve to keep up with sudden interest from the public sector, said co-founders Frische and Knoblach, both 42. Friends since their days at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1980s, their dream was to start a company together.
Frische's approach is, "You built it, you make it work." Knoblach's is, "You research it for many years." It took both to build Space Data.
"Jerry called me up and said, 'How about balloons? I know you love toys,' " Frische recalled. "We were sure this would fill a market space no one else can touch."