Not all the balloons flying high over Wyoming are Chinese spy balloons, nor are they even weather balloons. Some of the balloons crisscrossing Wyoming come from a South Dakota company that’s putting balloons to work in ways so cutting edge, they almost seem ripped from the pages of new science fiction novel.
The company is called Aerostar. Last year, it sent out 50 to 100 balloons from South Dakota to places like Hawaii, California and Idaho, and at least a dozen or so Aerostar balloons flew over Wyoming on their way to and fro.
One of these balloons was involved in a high-tech demonstration project with NASA and the U.S. Forest Service which could dramatically improve firefighting logistics in the West.
What they did for the project was turn one of their high-altitude Thunderhead Balloon systems into a perpetual floating cellphone tower over a wildfire in Idaho.
“Here, instead of being at 10 to 20,000 feet, we’re at 50 to 70,0000 and we can maintain that and stay three, four days to weeks at a time,” Aerostar President Jim Nelson told Cowboy State Daily. “And we’ve developed our own remote sensing payload so we can get near real-time fire front information directly from the balloon down to the firefighters.”
Fixed-Wing Aircraft Have Limitations
Fixed-wing airplanes are frequently used to nightly fly over a particular wildfire so that new maps can be produced of the fire’s footprint.
These flights are both costly and dangerous, though, and if it is too smoky or the weather is too bad, the pilots aren’t even allowed to fly. That means there’s no updated information for firefighters on the ground.
The flights are also relatively short-lived, since it takes fuel to keep a plane up in the air. Hovering in place for days and weeks at a time isn’t possible for them.
But a balloon doesn’t require constant refueling to stay up for weeks at a time, and it can be flown in good and bad weather, as well as in smoky conditions that would be too dangerous for humans.
Traditionally, though, balloons haven’t had much in the way of control. They’ve been at the mercy of wind currents.
“In the past, when you’d think of a balloon, it gets carried up and then, once it gets to an altitude, it just gets blown by the wind,” Nelson said. “But in about 2010 to 2012, we started being able to navigate the balloons. We have a ballon on the inside, so you can go up and down in altitude and you can actually navigate and catch different winds at different altitudes.”
That means the balloons can behave more like geostationary satellites, hovering over one particular geographical area. Unlike a geostationary satellite, they can be much closer to the ground, giving them far more capabilities.
“We’ve just had a record-breaking balloon at 262 days, so it’s been up for nine months,” Nelson said.
That might seem like a bit of magic or some new Star Trek-ish technology.
Actually, the magic that makes this advanced tech go involves just a simple internet connection, used to send signals to the ballon that tell it which wind patterns to catch to get where it needs to go, or stay put.
Eye In The Sky Watching You
It was actually this new ability to just persist in a single spot that brought Aerostar to the attention of NASA and the U.S. Forest Service and sparked their pilot project.
“One of the groups within the National Interagency Fire Center is led by Sean Triplett, and he’s really their technology lead,” said Aerostar’s Senior Engineering Program Manager Mark Ketcham. “And so, Sean’s been looking at balloons for many, many years and tracking their technology maturation.”
About four years ago, Aerostar was flying one of its balloons over a fire to take some infrared images of it.
“It was just kind of an experiment to see what was possible,” Ketcham said. “And it was a flight that Aerostar had funded, and Sean took notice of the balloon flying overhead and the fact that it was there for several days if not the better part of a week. So, he took the proactive step and reached out to Jim and he got ahold of me, and that was kind of how this all started.”
One of the things that surprised Nelson and Ketcham was that Triplett’s idea for the balloons wasn’t necessarily for more data.
“They already had more information than they could get out to people on the front lines of the fires,” Ketcham said. “And what (they) actually needed was a way to get all the information that’s already available out there to the boots on the ground.”
South Dakota-based Aerostar is testing high-altitude balloons with NASA and the U.S. Forest Service for supporting wildland firefighting efforts by giving cellphone service and other observations and data. (Courtesy Aerostar) 
South Dakota-based Aerostar is testing high-altitude balloons with NASA and the U.S. Forest Service for supporting wildland firefighting efforts by giving cellphone service and other observations and data. (Courtesy Aerostar) 
South Dakota-based Aerostar is testing high-altitude balloons with NASA and the U.S. Forest Service for supporting wildland firefighting efforts by giving cellphone service and other observations and data. This illustration shows how a network of balloons could be used to look down on a military target. (Courtesy Aerostar) 
South Dakota-based Aerostar is testing high-altitude balloons with NASA and the U.S. Forest Service for supporting wildland firefighting efforts by giving cellphone service and other observations and data. (Courtesy Aerostar)
No More Useless Smartphones
Having a floating cellphone tower that can be positioned wherever desired is a huge boost to firefighting logistics, given that most wildfires happen where there’s typically little to no traditional cell service at all.
“Once you go out to that front line, more often than not, firefighters don’t have LTE service like we’re all accustomed to,” Aerostar Senior Engineering Program Manager Mark Kecham told Cowboy State Daily. “You’re just carrying around a useless device to play games on, is about all its good for.”
But with a floating cellphone tower overhead, suddenly the device can become a vital tool, one that’s bringing real-time situational awareness to every firefighter on the ground. That’s a real lifesaver for everyone involved.
“They all have cellphones, so they all have the right technology,” Ketcham said. “And they all know how to use smartphones. So, by setting up a few apps, they can get the same situational awareness that we have every day with Google Maps.”
The balloon connects the incident command center with firefighters, pushing out the positions of people and equipment, along with details on where the fire line is, how intense the fire line is, what the weather conditions are, and all the other information that is relevant and lifesaving for firefighters.
Expect To See More Balloons Than Ever In A Sky Near You
Firefighters can also make calls out from the front line to the command center to communicate their status or situation. And the incident command center also has more flexibility to redirect plans if a situation is rapidly evolving, something that can frequently happen in firefighting.
“This gave firefighters connectivity on the front lines, so they could get updated information when they needed it, whenever they wanted it, all day long, as opposed to just before they left the camp in the morning,” Ketcham said. “And then the ability to redirect plans.”
“It’s a game-changer for the wildfire community,” Nelson added. “It’s really enhancing the safety and security of the firefighters on the ground.”
Wildfires are not the only area where Aerostar is actively innovating applications with balloons, Nelson said. He sees lots of exciting future applications like monitoring cattle herds and crops or detecting methane leaks from oil wells.
“There’s real opportunity in the future and, as this technology is maturing, I really expect this to be a more regular occurrence,” Nelson said. “Expect to see more balloons in the sky, running different applications, and aircraft filing the skies. Our mission at Aerostar is to connect, protect and save lives, and so any of the ways we can do that with balloons, we really feel we have a unique capability to deliver that to our end users.”
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
