As handy as multicopter drones are, the endlessly spinning blades are noisy, energy-intensive and potentially dangerous. Balloons could be a good alternative to do at least a few jobs other drones can ...

This involves metamaterial plates or 3D hollow geometries (e.g., cones, spheres, or rocket shapes) with porous sidewalls that act as Knudsen pumps: light (typically sunlight) is absorbed on one side, ...

When France's Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck and a cockerel 6,000 feet high aboard the world's first hot-air balloon in 1783, they couldn't have known their work would one day lead to ...

A prototype aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, is readied for a sunrise test flight at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, in July 2022 A scaled-down version of the aerobot that could one day take to the ...

PASADENA — Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech said today they want to further test the use of high-altitude balloons — like two used in California after a series of ...