Abstract: An aerial vehicle including a collapsible and inflatable vehicle body capable of being filled with a lighter than air gas so as to make the vehicle semi-buoyant or 100% buoyant at a predetermined altitude in an atmosphere above a solar system body. The vehicle body has a shape suitable to provide aerodynamic lift. The vehicle may include a propulsion device coupled to and extending from the vehicle body, where the device provides power to aerodynamically lift the vehicle above the 100% buoyant altitude to a higher altitude where the vehicle can maintain that altitude through the aerodynamic lift and vehicle buoyancy. The vehicle is configured to be deployed/inflated from a collapsed and stowed configuration to a deployed/inflated configuration in an orbit above the atmosphere of the solar system body, and is configured to enter the atmosphere in the inflated configuration and descend without propulsion.

Abstract: Chromatic correction of a Fresnel lens is effected by collecting data at multiple detectors arrayed along the optical axis of the lens and then digitally processing data from each detector to obtain multiple sets of image data corresponding to selected tuned wavelengths associated with the multiple detectors, or to obtain composite multi-color image data. Digital processing includes deconvolving data from each detector with a point spread function (PSF) associated with the tuned wavelength of the detector, and thereby enhancing the image derived from the detector. Two possible techniques are also disclosed for deriving sub-band signal data having a wavelength that falls between the tuned wavelengths of adjacent detectors.