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Technology Stocks : Energy Conversion Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Futurist who wrote (4317)	12/20/1999 12:01:00 AM
From: Krowbar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8393

Ferry interestink!! Tonight was a slow surfing night, so I decided to check out some of my old bookmarks. One of those was for Skystation. Remember the far-out plan to place dirigibles 17 miles over major cities? Well, when I clicked my bookmark, I got a 404 error. The page no longer existed. Sooo, I was about to report that here, but I decided to do an Alta Vista search first. And I found an updated Skystation site, in German. dafu.de Das Skystation-Konzept Der Zeppelin kommt wieder zu Ehren! Genauer gesagt Prall-Luftschiffe. Ein Konsortium, zu dem Aerospatiale, Alenia Spazio, Comsat, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Dornier Satellitensysteme, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Thomson-CSF und United Solar Systems gehören, plant Kommunikationsplattformen, die im 2-GHz-Bereich größere Regionen mit einem Durchmesser von bis zu 1000 km mit Funkdiensten aller Art, u.a. einem schnellen Internet-Zugang, Videokonferenzen usw. versorgen... I can understand some German, so I clicked on a "Skystation" (duh)link there to get the English version. Here is their latest update... BETHESDA, Maryland, September 23, 1999 – Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications (LMGT) announced today that it has received a contract to provide end-to-end systems integration for Sky Station International Development Corporation's Stratospheric Telecommunications Service (STS). LMGT will assist Sky Station in its unique plans to provide low-cost broadband Internet capacity via stratospheric platforms. Using advanced proprietary technologies, a system of lighter-than-air platforms will be maintained in geo-stationary positions over metropolitan areas. LMGT will lead a global team of companies, each of which is recognized as a leader in its field, to develop and deploy this turnkey system. Value of the contract was not disclosed. LMGT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin formed to concentrate and extend the corporation's role in the expanding telecommunications services marketplace by leveraging its 30 years of expertise in the design, development, system engineering and integration and deployment of large-scale communications systems. LMGT's Network Systems Development unit in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, will be responsible for this Systems Integration contract... --------------- Hmmm...They may need to use radiation hardened, non-volatile chips in the electronics way up there above the protective atmosphere, and Tyler Lowry made a deal with Lockheed, and...wait a second, I'm getting out of control here! Buuttt...also this from that updated site. Who is building the Sky Station system? The Sky Station industrial team includes Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications as the end-to-end system integrator; Alenia Spazio/Finmeccanica of Italy as the primary payload developer; Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH in Germany - a corporate unit of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace - as a developer for the power subsystem; Airship Technologies Services Ltd of the United Kingdom as the prime contractor for the platform; Thomson-CSF Communications of France as gateway earth station manufacturer and payload sub-contractor; and United Solar Systems Corp. of Michigan as supplier of light weight solar cells. -------- This is no team of dummies. This idea may fly yet, and be a real winner. The new Skystation link skystation.com Del