BOA27 is an open source, open hardware, smart, leafleting balloon.
Current Estimated Cost per balloon: $1000
Note: Once this repo has 1 completed design, the price counter will change to match the cost of that balloon. For sake of consistency, shipping costs will be ignored.
Article 27 of the Reactionary ideology and culture rejection act of the Democratic People Republic of Korea states:
Any person who brings in or distributes South Korean movies, video recordings, compilations, and books shall be sentenced to reform through labor for life."
This law has made it more difficult than ever to get need information about the outside world such as health information, educational material, worship material, or simply entertainment needed to cope with the present day realities.
In order to support the North Koreans who live under this regime, South Korean activists have been sending balloons across the border with payloads containing USB drives, leaflets of information, money, and food. This practice of sending balloons over a border is nothing new. Recently, however, South Korean activist groups have begun creating smart balloons which have GPS trackers, altimeters, and controlled-release, leaflet dispensers. These smart balloons increase the chances of getting materials to a target area from the estimated 15% to, according to one activist group, 50%-60%. These activist groups report spending up to $1000 per balloon.
As a community of engineers, developers, and technicians, together we can architect a smart balloon which is cheaper and maintains a 50% accuracy rate or higher.
So, in response to the enactment and enforcement this law, with concern for the human rights and well being of the North Koreans who live under it, and in support of the brave South Korean activists constructing smart balloons to fly leaflets, and resources to North Korea, this open source project was created.
The designs, tools, and research here are made public so that any group or individual of good will may construct a BOA27 to deliver necessary items or information into a resource or information starved area.
- Design Specifications
- Balloon Design and Material
- Fuel/Lifting Agent
- Navigation
- Altitude Controls
- GPS Tracking
- Payloads
- Launch and Landing
- Research
- Resources
- TODO
Starting from the description of smart balloons being used, they:
- can carry a 7.5 Kilo payload
- can reach 9000 meters altitude
- have an altimeter-controlled release valve for controlling the altitude of the balloon
- use Hydrogen as the lifting agent
- may contain a speaker which ejects from the balloon and plays songs for up to 5 days.
[ ] create a program to calculate the lifting capacity of certain gases. Similar to this.
Things that will always need to be done:
- Check figures and calculations
- Formatting and spell checking.
- find more public sources of information on leaflet balloons and add links under research.
- upload or correct a translation of this repo into a folder named after the language.