Metallic Envelopes for LTA Technology: Interview with Tankers
We had the chance to interview Mickael Frotin, engineer at CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) in France since 2008. Expert in the team of Nathalie Leborgne, he is experienced with particles in CERN and involved with calorimetry. He has worked at the astrophysics laboratory in Paris where he tried to find a flight solution for telescopes for many years. Here, the idea for founding Tankers evolved: “The major problem is that telescopes can currently not stay airborne for longer than six months. We therefore tried to find a solution for a material that could hold gas for longer. After having studied simulations for many materials, we finally hit upon the solution of a metallic envelope which gave very good results (ability to stay airborne for four to five years). Following upon this discovery, we found a solution to assemble the metallic envelope. Applying the new data, we determined…