UAV Hoisted Tower Powered By Laser Over Fiberoptic 103
carstene writes "LaserMotive, winners of the 2009 NASA power beaming contest, has a new invention, a virtual comm or surveillance tower. It's a quadcotper that can run indefinitely, powered by laser beam over a fiber optic cable. This allows the "tower" to reach great heights and avoids most laser safety issues."
How is this better than a balloon? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why not just use a balloon? The only advantage I can see this having is less movement due to wind, but designing a properly shaped balloon should easily defeat that, and more importantly a balloon would be much quieter at low altitudes, use much less power, and stay aloft even if the power is cut. Seems like a case of a hammer looking for a nail.