Dispersed radio communication & interesting application of ballon-tech

[Patrick Salsbury <salsbury at bucky dot sculptors dot com>]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/devon_technology_000813.html

This is part of a series of articles that have been covering the work that
NASA and the Mars Society is doing in the far North. One area of interest
is the wireless communication networks they're developing, which would
have obvious application in a random scattering of autonomous houses that
don't have wires connecting them, or fixed distances. 

Another thing that was cool was their observation-blimp, which sends up a
video camera on a 200m (665ft) line, so they can see the surrounding area,
without having to climb every hill to get a view around.

And the last one was "Monty", a low-cost, very cool idea for a rover. It
uses a balloon to keep neutral buoyancy, and sort of skips across the
ground, following the winds. Much faster and long-ranged than a simple
wheeled rover, and also not so prone to being stopped by rocks and
boulders.

Pat