Weather balloons expand reach of wireless

By attaching transmitting equipment to heavy-duty weather balloons produced at its Chandler factory, Space Data Corp. can offer a wireless network to serve a 500-mile area for up to 24 hours. Two hundred balloons, flown at specific locations around the country, can provide nationwide coverage.

The high-flying mobile networks also are being eyed for military applications, border patrol, disaster recovery after hurricanes and other applications. The company initially provided a wireless text communication service used by oil companies to keep tabs on wells in remote locations. Space Data improved the technology to handle voice communications and is working on increasing its data capacity.

Several years ago, the product caught the attention of the U.S. military, which began testing the feasibility of using the balloons to create mobile networks for soldiers to communicate in remote combat locations.

The tests resulted in the company earlier this year being awarded a $49 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide portable wireless communication systems for troops deployed in Iraq and elsewhere. The balloons can be carried in a backpack or Humvee and launched anywhere a communications link is needed.

"It's an inexpensive, smart solution to our communications problems in remote areas," said Lt. Col. Kelly Andersen, concept development division chief for the Air Force Space Battlelab project, which looks for innovative solutions to military problems.

The contract propelled the 9-year-old Chandler company out of the startup phase and into full-scale production.

"It's a very big deal for us," said Gerald Knoblach, Space Data's chairman, CEO and co-founder.

He noted that the military pact lends credibility to the company's product and could make it easier to sell to wireless telephone companies, one of several major markets the company has identified.

The balloons fly in "near space," a region between 65,000 and 135,000 feet that is above weather patterns and traditional air traffic. They travel west to east with an upper-level airflow and rise and fall by alternately releasing hydrogen from the balloons and sand from a ballast container.

The Federal Aviation Administration restricts the payload to 6 pounds, so the batteries that power the system are small and have a life of only 12 to 24 hours. When the batteries die, the balloons deflate and parachute to Earth. They are recovered by ground personnel, charged up and relaunched.

Space Data has been steadily reducing the cost of the systems and now can produce them in large quantities for about $10,000 each.

Knoblach founded Space Data in 1997 with Eric Frische, a classmate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the best man at his wedding and Space Data's chief technology officer.

Frische, an independent toy designer, was working at Matte and Knoblach at Orbital Sciences Corp. in Chandler when they formed Space Data.

"We had always talked about doing a company together," Knoblach said. "This seemed like the right opportunity."

At Orbital, Knoblach became familiar with low-orbit communications satellites and the global positioning system needed to track them. Orbital also made weather balloons, which gave Knoblach the idea for Space Data.

"I realized that the balloons could act like communications satellites," he said.

The business initially was funded by family members but later attracted investments from venture capitalists and other private investors.

The military contract could pave the way for an initial public stock offering, which is part of Space Data's long-term strategy. That would allow the early investors to recover their money, as well as provide additional capital for expansion.

Space Data has developed three ways to capitalize on its product: selling wireless communications services to industrial companies to communicate with remote facilities and monitor equipment; selling equipment to buyers, such as the Air Force, that launch and operate their own networks; and selling airtime on a company-operated wireless network to cell-phone providers looking to fill in coverage gaps without building more towers.