Giant Robotic “ISIS” Spy Blimp Creeps Forward

DARPA’s “Integrated Sensor is Structure” (ISIS) High Altitude Airship (HAA) blimp

Wired | Aug 7, 2007

By Noah Shachtman

Imagine a blimp so freakin’ huge, you could fit an entire, 1000-foot aircraft carrier inside.  And the radar at heart of that monster zeppelin?  Well, that would be as big as the 15-story hotel where DARPA, the Pentagon’s mad science division, is holding its conference.

DARPA first proposed a king-sized, robotic airship, four years ago.  The idea was to have the blimp is at nearly 65,000 feet in the sky, spotting enemies up to 180 miles away, and watching out for incoming cruise missiles 350 miles in the distance.  During down times, ISIS might even serve as a cell tower in the sky, relaying communications to U.S. troops.

It didn’t take long, though, to realize that such a ginormous undertaking was going to be tough to pull off — even for a group was way-out as DARPA.  So, instead, the agency refocused its “Integrated Sensor is Structure” (ISIS) blimp effort, looking at component technologies instead: stuff like solar panels, fuel cells, and flexible radar arrays.

Fast forward a few years.  Now, ISIS program manager Tim Clark says, those components are starting to prove out.  Clark set a goal of 400 kilowatt hours per kilogram for the blimp’s power structure — everything from the fuel cells to the solar panels to the cables in between.  DARPA-funded researchers are likely to hit 700 kilowatt hours in upcoming tests, he tells DANGER ROOM.

“I’m feeling very comfortable.  Things are no longer over the horizon.  Now it’s a manufacturing issue,” Clark adds.

And one of Pentagon politics.  DARPA wants to build a prototype, third-scale model of the blimp — one that’ll be a mere football-field long, and stay up for 90 days at a time. But it needs one of the armed services to help pay for it.  So far, no takers.  “We’re not going foward without service participation.  But that level of participation is TBD,” Clark says.

Assuming they can get, say, the Air Force to play ball — and assuming that first prototype works — the eventual goal is to get a carrier-sized, unmanned zeppelin that would stay up for 10 years at a time, keeping watch on everything below.  Clark says, “After that, you’d unzip the bag, and be done.”  It’s still a long way off.