Surveillance sphere looks like Rover from The Prisoner
Sierra Nevada Corporation built this prototype spherical airship to "monitor crowds or border crossings." It seems like they were inspired by Rover, the border patrol balloon from The Prisoner.
Right now FAA regulations require that it be manned but in the future it may be operated by remote control.It looks like it would be fun to pop.[Sierra Nevada Corporation's Jim] McGinley says the airship could be valuable to anyone who desires a persistent surveillance presence in a remote location.
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Funny I should found out what that thing is from BB. I can see it from my house.
Man... are they serious ? And what about a giant T-800 staring at us poor humans ?
The company says it will continue testing in Stead for the next two or three weeks.
In Stead of what? *bdumCHING!
Hey, Michaelchr, that makes you an expert on surveillance, right? :-)
I agree with Mark. Popping it would be an almost irresistable temptation, once it's remote controlled.
"By hook, or by crook...we will."
be seeing you!
I love their beer. Not sure I'd go up in an airship built by a brewery, but glad to see they are branching out!
Oh wait, it's Sierra Nevada Corporation. Well that's a totally different thing then, isn't it?
Who is Number One?
You are Number Six.
Looks like you could shoot it down with a slingshot.
What, was the giant wall stretching across the whole southern boarder too expensive?
So basically, this is a balloon. Guess I'll submit my "visual enhancement device valuable to anyone who desires to clearly see distant objects". Sure, I'll have to get another telescope, but it'll be worth the trouble for some of that sweet, sweet DHS money.
I am not a number! I am a human being!
May it be more successful than British Surveillance cameras. Not sure I want 1,000 of them consuming airspace to find one illegal alien.
Wait, wait... You can put a man in that thing?
I want to float around inside of Rover!
Man, that would be like the best parts of the Fountain times the best parts of the Prisoner.
Want!
Popping it? We might need a fast, really accurate pin for that.
smart gravity flechettes from another ballooon?
1. Mount an xacto blade on a model rocket.
2. Launch rocket at Rover
3. ???
4. Profit!
big enough gas laser burning one spot for an hour?
We at SNC call it 'Testicle One'.
the Rover was actually a weather balloon because the original Rover concept would've blown the budget for The Prisoner...which already had the largest production budget of any BBC show of its time
O series rocket motor boosting some kind of EMP device to fry the snooper electronics? Everyone seems to be obsessed with impossible to build EMP rifles, the explosion driven pulse device must be easier to homebrew.
do filters work against blinding lasers? Would you need a range of red/green/blue high wattage laser pointers to effectively blind the cameras from the ground? It might be more cost effective to mass distribute cheap lasers to the populace opposed to the spying and count on there being too many for ground forces to identify and harass. Relatively low cost compared to conventional balloon-kill capable remote devices like drones. Or identify and destroy the ground station that receives the signals?
@ everyone who's watched all of The Prisoner and especially
@ #7 posted by Boba Fett Diop
The meaning of the intro. changes w/ different punctuation:
"Who is Number One?
You are, Number Six."
They need to make some clear commercial ones for people to go up in and hang out, personal muse bubbles.
Looks suspiciously like a Burning Man art project. Right location, and the event starts next week. Damn hippies.
I suggest reading Nevil Shute's autobiographical novel "Slide Rule". In part it covers the R100 project. A British airship circa 1930. The book is a page turner.
simplest is best
http://guns.connect.fi/gow/barrett.jpg
There's nothing to see here. Move along.
Sierra Nevada Corporation seems to like balloons -- er, persistent surveillance presences. They're apparently freaking out some Canadians by testing another spy-balloon design up in Purt Huron.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090814/sarnia_protest_090815/20090815?hub=TopStories
Needs an iris and pupil painted on it, so that it looks like a giant eye-ball.
Looks like it would be fun to pop?
Yup.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0804/S00443.htm
Statement of the Waihopai ANZAC Ploughshares
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation; and there shall be no more training for war. Isaiah 2/4
This morning, 30 April 2008, we entered the Waihopai Spy Base near Blenheim.
Our group, including a Dominican Priest, temporarily closed the base by padlocking the gates and proceeded to deflate one of the large domes covering two satellite dishes.
At 6am we cut through three security fences surrounding the domes - these are armed with razor wire, infrared motion sensors and a high voltage electrified fence.
Once inside we used sickles to cut one of the two 30-metre white domes, built a shrine and knelt in prayer to remember the people killed by United States military activity.
We have financed our activities through personal savings, additional part-time employment and a small interest-free loan from one of our supporters.
We are responding to the Bush administration’s admission that intelligence gathering is the most important tool in the so-called War on Terror. This war will have no end until citizens of the world refuse to let it continue. The ECHELON spy network including Waihopai, is an important part of the US government’s global spy network and we have come in the name of the Prince of Peace to close it down.
The base is funded by New Zealand tax payers and located on New Zealand soil which makes New Zealand a target through our association with the UKUSA intelligence cooperation agreement.
Five years ago the Clark government opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq. Yet at the same time the Bush administration was using the National Security Agency’s ECHELON system, of which Waihopai is an integral component, to spy on UN Security Council members so it could more easily swing them in favour of an invasion.
There have been over 100 Ploughshares actions over the last twenty years around the world. Ploughshares direct actions are linked through the common factors of: entry to locations connected to military activity, Christian prayers and most involve some form of property destruction.
In New Zealand we have two spy domes with satellite interception dishes underneath. Not too long ago a protester with a sickle popped one. This link has a photo with the two domes, one deflated: http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Bases/Waihopai_dome_collapsed_719999.jpg
@Anonymous #19:
Pedantic, I know, but the BBC didn't make 'The Prisoner'; it was ITC, for the ITV network.
And cost doesn't seem to have been the motivation for using a weather balloon: apparently a robotic version was designed and built, but didn't work.
I've seen Fat Albert in the Florida Keys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cudjoe_Key,_Florida
Its a radar balloon - but is used to track illegal immigration all the same.
Definitely a target for the Make crowd, especially with big-city police depts that love to spend their big budgets and forefeiture prizes on cool toys like drones. Asymmetrical dogfights over LA coming soon.
I am not a number -
o wait.
the only reason they want to man it is so they can kill you for shooting it down. Otherwise it would just be property damage.
@Takuan #15
You mean like this one?
yes, but will it bounce after you and then smoosh onto your face until you pass out so you can be returned to the island?
Haha--nice!
I could of used one of those to compliment my Prisoner Halloween costume a couple years ago.
Is there a giant security hamster inside?
I'd go for a nice RC airplane from the hobby store. Drones for the masses.
Check out what the boys from Palmdale are up to:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/HighAltitudeAirship/
Needs more Leefe Robinson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leefe_Robinson