Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** in the face of the rising…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** in the face of the rising climatic threats, access to well-adjusted housing insurance is a must. Modern insurance carriers heavily rely on aerial imaging of properties and AI models, to quote and assess premiums at the renewal time, and to pay out damages upon claims after events like hurricanes or winter storms. Up-to-date aerial imaging is necessary before and after damage events, as IT helps speed up payouts and adjust and quote insurance premiums at a more competitive rate.however, the updated aerial imaging necessary to extend this improvement and resiliency to rural areas is missing. Typically, this imaging is captured with airplanes at a 2-4 inch/pixel resolution, but does not cover US rural areas due to cost and scalability issues. IT is estimated that 60M rural properties are missing updated imagery. In order to bridge this GAP, we propose the usage of stratospheric balloons to provide high resolution imaging. Balloons at 60,000 FT and higher provide a vantage point from which imaging large rural areas at the reasonable cost becomes feasible. The key technological development needed is an optical system capable of achieving the necessary resolution from stratospheric heights. In this project, we design, prototype and test such an optical system. We expect to achieve a lightweight telescope design capable of enduring a low-temperature, low-pressure environment and providing 2-4 inch resolution imaging from the stratosphere.