Published April 14, 2010 12:00AM
If you left the satellite phone at home and never got around to buying a GPS, YankoDesign's rescue balloon may be your key to rescue, according to backcountry.com. The “Rescue Balloon Kit” contains a helium gas cylinder and long string balloon.Lost backpackers may fill it, seal it, and send it skywards. Afterwards, you may stew about never investing in a satellite phone while watching the red tube hover overhead.
Read about the future of S&R—Robots!—in Rise of the Machines from our March 2007 issue.
–Stayton Bonner