Climate Outlaws?

We've embraced the ad hominem "cowboy" attacks on us, and this might have made you think we're edgier than we actually are. The truth is we're boring, law-abiding founders...mostly. Let's look at the main areas where you might think we're skirting rules to separate wheat from chaff... or whatever an appropriate country idiom would be.

Balloons

The friendly swimmers of the sky, balloons get "right-of-way" over everything else in the air... because they're the least maneuverable. There are few rules when their payloads are small, and big ones have easy-to-navigate, sensible regulations. 

Specifically: FAA's part 101 regulates most 'weird floating things'... at least if they're big. There are a variety of exemptions, including balloons with small payloads. We meet this exemption by:

• Mass: our telemetry package weighs less than .25 pounds, far less than the 6 pounds we're allowed (per package, with 2 packages allowed per flight)

• Density: our densest surface is 2 oz / in^2, under the 3 oz/in^2 permitted. Legal eagles will note this density measurement only matters if we're greater than 4 pounds in mass... but these cowpokes play it safe;)

• Rope: 50-pound-test braided fishing line holds everything together, which is the strongest allowed under the exemption. 

So, what do we have to follow? Basically, common sense:

§ 101.7 Hazardous operations.

(a) No person may operate any moored balloon, kite, amateur rocket, or unmanned free balloon in a manner that creates a hazard to other persons, or their property.

(b) No person operating any moored balloon, kite, amateur rocket, or unmanned free balloon may allow an object to be dropped therefrom, if such action creates a hazard to other persons or their property.

If we do launches with heavier payloads, more rules apply. Keep in mind we're delivering sulfur dioxide as a gas, so 1 ton of sulfur dioxide mixed with hydrogen inside a giant balloon with a 3.9-pound tracker could be argued to *still* qualify as exempt from further rules... and is clearly well within frontier territory to try;)

Chemicals
What about the sulfur dioxide? Isn't that super hazardous so of course well-regulated? Like any good medicine, quantity and location matter a lot. OSHA regulates how much exposure you can have based on a permissible exposure limit of 5 ppm, calculated as the average over an 8 hour shift. Given that we (obviously) launch our balloons outdoors, you can smell sulfur dioxide at ~1ppm, and we can only smell rotten eggs for the several minutes per balloon during which we're filling them, we're quite ok here. Out of an abundance of caution (I told you: boring nerds!), we've recently added a sulfur dioxide sensor that buzzes annoyingly when it reads more than 5 ppm. If it goes off for more than 10 minutes per hour right next to the tank, I'll be stunned. Want to geek out even more? Here's the OSHA sampling guideline (pdf).
A 747 flying across the country releases ~150 times more sulfur dioxide than one of our balloons at a less beneficial altitude, so we're not going to worry about broader so2 hazards any more than the airlines until we're emitting at least 1% of the quantity they do. 

Lift Gases
Pick one: scarce or Hindenburg. I'm kidding... mostly. Helium is so rare (on earth) that its export used to be illegal. And, it's expensive: we pay ~$300 for enough to loft 3,000 Cooling Credits. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is literally the most abundant element in the universe... so we're not running out any time soon. And it costs <1/3 as much. Contrary to popular misconception, hydrogen is legal for use in balloons! We use it for most of our launches now. The basic "be careful fire" rules apply... kinda like propane, but less sketchy because it's lighter than air.

Weather Modification
There is one must-do for us on reporting launches: NOAA's Weather Modification Act. Once a year we submit a report on our activities over the last 12 months. Weirdly, the law is based on intent: even though airliners and refineries emit millions of times more sulfur dioxide than we do, they don't *intend* to modify global temperatures... so they don't have to file a report. Any Wiccans within the United States trying to generate clouds? Technically, you are required to initiate a project with NOAA;)

Elsewhere 

Contrary to popular belief, Mexico hasn't banned solar geoengineering. Florida *has* banned most big balloon launches. However, there's an exception for "a person 6 years of age or younger." Luke might have done a launch from Miami dressed as a giant baby; these lawmakers really should be more specific about their silly rules. Also, reminder because we get asked all the time: our balloons are fully biodegradable.   

In the future, some misguided politicians somewhere might ban solar geoengineering to pretend they're doing something about the climate crisis. Until they also place a meaningful cap on carbon emissions, we will work around them. We will adapt as needed; the ocean is a big, largely unregulated place.

Should We Care?

We are in a climate crisis. Some might argue that rules sometimes should be broken to deal with crises. Others might even add that legal avenues have failed to deliver meaningful results for this crisis and that people are justified in breaking some laws to reduce further climate catastrophes. Make your own decisions here;)