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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.

11 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. We can replace the space shuttle by stanmann · · Score: 0, Interesting

    With one of these balloons. They appear safe enough, and they have adequate lift capability. They are a bit slow on the takeoff, but... safety first right.

    --
    Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
    1. Re:We can replace the space shuttle by tjensor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Going a long way straight up is not the same as going in to orbit!

      --
      <fnord>OBEY</fnord>
    2. Re:We can replace the space shuttle by hubie · · Score: 3, Interesting
      It is much more than a conceptual idea. The US military did balloon-assisted launches in the 1950's, and recently amateur radio operators as well as amateur rocket folk have done it as well. For one link see here.

      You aren't going to get big payloads into space this way as the heavy balloons can carry on the order of several tons. I'm not sure if, in the end, this would be any cheaper or easier than launching a Pegasus from an airplane.

      One thing certainly would be neat is if they used hygrogen in the balloon, that would make quite an impressive fireball then the rocket is ignited.

  2. the curvature of the earth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The interesting thing, too me at least, is seeing
    the curvature of the earth. When I was a functionally
    check flight weapon systems officer for the F-4E some
    years ago, I used to see the curvature of the Earth at
    50,000 feet. And now, we didn't use pressure suits...

  3. Re:Boiling Blood by Viol8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The blood would only boil if exposed to the outside. What is never mentioned is that the
    body itself would keep the blood under pressure at least for a while so it wouldn't be a simple
    case of bubbling in the veins , it would be a far more unpleasent case of blood leaking out from all orifices THEN boiling.
    Remember that at most the pressure difference between inside and outside the body can only ever be 1 atmosphere which is equivalent to a
    a scuba diver coming up from a 30 foot dive too fast. Yes it'll case problems but no the body won't explode or anything like that.

  4. While this is cool, how about using balloons by ahfoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    as an assist for a conventional rocket?
    I wrote a letter to Aerostar, the largest commercial hotair balloon manufacturer in the States, about their largest model, the Aero 245 asking about maximum payload and altitude and I never heard back.
    But I did find that they were only around 75 grand a piece. What I was wondering was if you took like five of those to say 40,000 feet towing a rocket and then launched from there, wouldn't you be able to get a lot more bang for your buck than from say a similar operation using a customized jet airliner that costs millions to modify and operate?
    I mean this high altitude stunt stuff is cool and all, but I'm very curious as to why balloons can't be a practical element in launching satellites and such.

  5. dangerous? by Blitzshlag · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They're ascending at 1000ft/min with a balloon the size of the Empire State Building, which is as thin as a freezer bag. So one bird strike and they're done right?

    1. Re:dangerous? by codegen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not really. A balloon of this type can take a few holes. All that happens is that the balloon starts to loose presure and comes down. Last summer there was an interesting case here in Canada where a scientific package was sent up by weather balloon. It had an eject to release the instruments which would parachute down. The eject failed. So they sent some military jets up to shoot the balloon down. Put many 50 cal. holes in the balloon. The balloon was in Northern Europe before it finally came down (even with the holes).

      In this case, all a hole means is that they don't set the altitude record.

      Tom.

      --
      Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
  6. Re:I wonder by gallen1234 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    According to the article the fabric is rather delicate - strong winds are enough to cancel the flight. I don't know whether or not this particular fabric is a design requirement but the way things are right now I don't think I'd want a rocket going off anywhere nearby.

  7. Re:Boiling Blood by avandesande · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This exploding human stuff is urban legend. I think there would be a certain amount of degassing in your veins which would give you a deadly case of 'the bends'

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  8. Re:Blood heats in partial pressure? by mountain_penguin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    nasa say that this would not happen and that you can survive for upto a half a minute without ill effects. "You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly."