July 16th, 2024

BOA27: An open source, open hardware, leafleting, smart balloon

The GitHub project BOA27 aims to create a cost-effective smart leafleting balloon for North Koreans. It includes design, materials, navigation, payloads, and aims to provide crucial information access. Contact project contributors for more details.

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BOA27: An open source, open hardware, leafleting, smart balloon

The GitHub project BOA27 (Balloons Over Article 27) focuses on creating an open-source, open-hardware smart leafleting balloon to provide information support to North Koreans. The goal is to develop a cost-effective balloon with a delivery accuracy of 50% or more to target areas. The project covers design specifications, dome materials, fuel/lifting agent, navigation, altitude controls, GPS tracking, payloads, launch and landing procedures, research, resources, and a to-do list for future enhancements. This initiative aims to aid individuals in accessing crucial information. For further details or support regarding the project, additional information can be obtained by reaching out to the project contributors.

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By @aogposton - 7 months
I recently gave a talk on disseminating information into North Korea titled They're Still Using Balloons. The goal was to make tech professional aware of the lack of tech in the human rights space, especially in regards to North Korea. The talk briefly covered the smart balloons being used by South Korean activists, but during the QnA I was asked if I had considered open sourcing the designs of a smart balloon so that anyone could help.

So, here is the repo. I sincerely hope you guys considers helping out so that we can get more needed resources to North Koreans all the while developing a balloon cheap enough that activits can build to support thier own causes.