Nothing, although it would be quite  possible to chart the location of the falling package as the ballon descends. From the earth station  till it falls below the radio horizon, say a few thousand feet. It should also be viable without incurring any overhead to design into the cellular transmitter  a way for it to also relay its descending location  below that horizon to other ballons in the network. This would give a pinpoint of just before  landing or even from the ground. But without volunteer efforts it would cost more to pay someone to drive out and pick it up then it would to build another one.

  Key electronic components in a system like that have now become so cheap that they can be considered disposable. Just 5 or 6 years ago this would not have been the case. These are low output wattage transcievers or maybe repeaters but from first glance at that video those charts so huge coverage areas. I  wonder how much traffic each ballon could handle?

Keep in mind that curently these are not actually standard cellular telephone units but data repeaters for messaging or military digital radios. Although it would be quite possible to deploy cellular telephony in small packages. A portable Cellular Site unit for Search and Rescue that I have worked with last year is already quite small and light even though it incorporates multiple frequency and protocol transmitters and it only had to be designed small enough to fit in a aircraft avionics bay.

Last edited by Johnny Rotten (2008-02-21 17:32:05)

opsec wrote:

Well we reputedly hit it, the hydrazine went boom and all is well with the world, except the Russians are pissed and if you're on Midway DUCK!

The hydrazine would have heated up and gone boom during reentry.  Concern for people and the environment, as an excuse to blow up the satellite was too big a stretch for this administration to pull off.  They should have just been honest and said (a) we want to test our anti-satellite system, (b) we need to destroy sensitive equipment and information, and (c) fuck you and your objections.  The Chinese did the same thing, made a bigger mess and don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.  They have more pride than to make themselves look stupid telling transparent lies to the rest of the world.