SoPTAS: Solar powered tethered aerostat system

Emergency situations like natural calamities generally disrupt power supply, which hinders the relief and rehabilitation operations. Post disaster, one of the most immediate and important need is to setup a communications network, which is not feasible by conventional means. This paper describes the design of working prototype of a totally self-contained and easily re-locatable system, which can provide necessary power for communication equipment. The power will be generated by solar panels mounted on the top of the envelope of an aerostat, which is an aerodynamically shaped balloon filled with a lighter-than-air gas, and is tethered to the ground. The entire system will be mounted on the chassis of a truck or trailer, to make it easily re-locatable. In this study, a commercially available, light-weight flexible amorphous silicon solar panel with a peak power output of 64 W was procured and tested. A prototype aerostat envelope was fabricated, and a provision was made for integration of the solar panel on the top of the envelope, with a thermal insulation layer. The envelope was leak tested and an existing winching system for ground handling of the system was readied. The technical feasibility of this system has been established via the conceptual design, sizing and fabrication of a working prototype.