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More on High-Altitude Balloonists

Posted by michael on from the what-goes-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Guardian reports on an attempt at the record for the highest balloon flight. 'A bag of helium the size of the Empire State building to challenge Nasa record.'" We had an article about them a few months ago.

8 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Visible by WebfishUK · · Score: 4, Informative

    Worth noting that the ballon is so large that once airborne it will be visible over a radius of some 600 miles. Its being launched on the south coats of cornwall so most of England, Ireland and Wales and Northern France will be able to see it.

    I bet the bastards launch at night though....

    --
    -- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
    1. Re:Visible by mountain_penguin · · Score: 4, Informative

      saw a program on this on the TV the other night
      The flight is going to take 9 hours and they are going to launch in the morning to be home in time for tea

  2. Other High-Altitude Baloons by TrollBridge · · Score: 3, Informative

    The real high-altitude balloon record-holder, surprisingly, was not mentioned in this article.

    --
    There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
  3. Boiling Blood by LudditeMind · · Score: 5, Informative

    At about 44,000ft, you need to be wearing a pressure suit, because if not the blood will start to heat and actually boil.

    It's my understanding that the blood wouldn't actually heat, it would boil because of the lack of pressure. Am I wrong?

    1. Re:Boiling Blood by Rolo+Tomasi · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, people don't just explode in vacuum. I think the notion comes from bad movies ... the only realistic scene depicting humans in vacuum that I can remember was in 2001, where that Dave guy gets back into the spaceship. He even correctly uses the escaping air to propel himself into the ship. Pretty cool if you think about it.

      --
      Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
  4. Re:Blood heats in partial pressure? by jonnythan · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, but if you knew anything at all about chemistry or physics, you'd realize that as the pressure decreases, a liquid can boil even if the temperature stays the same.

    That being said, I don't think the water in your blood will actually vaporize at that altitude. However, nitrogen will start to come out of solution and form bubbles in your bloodstream.

  5. Not _quite_ that scary by MenTaLguY · · Score: 3, Informative

    Bear in mind that their skin and all those other solid bits actually does contribute a bit to maintaining the pressure of e.g. their blood.

    This has been borne out by experiments with primates and a few decompression accidents with humans.

    Yes, decompression would still kill them, but mostly just as a consequence of asphyxiation (albeit accompanied by very painful swelling). They certainly won't explode.

    While they still might look a bit grotesque, there needn't be any worries about having to crack the suits and ladle the corpses into buckets afterwards or anything like that.

    --

    DNA just wants to be free...
  6. Re:cool thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    "However, by diving or "standing up" in free fall, any experienced skydiver can learn to reach speeds of over 160-180MPH. Speeds of over 200MPH require significant practice to achieve. The record free fall speed, done without any special equipment, is 321MPH. Obviously, it is desirable to slow back down to 110MPH before parachute opening."

    - http://hypertextbook.com/facts/JianHuang.shtml

    How did he get enough speed to break the sound barrier? He would have needed a jet to speed his descent or something like that.

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