Patent ID: 8910905

Claim:
A system comprising: a shipping container that is closable to enclose a plurality of balloons, wherein each balloon comprises an envelope and a payload; a communication interface that is operable to receive a launch instruction for each of the plurality of balloons; one or more balloon-deployment systems coupled to the shipping container, wherein at least one balloon-deployment system is operable to open the shipping container for deployment of one or more of the balloons, and wherein each balloon deployment system is operable to deploy one or more of the balloons while the shipping container is open; and a control system coupled to the shipping container, wherein the control system is operable to respond to the respective launch instruction for each of the plurality of balloons by causing the balloon-deployment system to open the shipping container and launch the balloon for which the launch instruction was received from the open shipping container; wherein the shipping container further comprises (i) a water storage container, (ii) a rain collection system arranged to fill the water storage container, (iii) an electrolysis system that is operable to generate hydrogen lift gas from water stored in the water storage container, wherein the electrolysis system is configured to provide the generated hydrogen lift gas to the balloon.