Slashdot Mirror
Balloonists Attempt World Altitude Record
ACey writes "BBC News is reporting on the latest attempt to break the balloon altitude world record. Qinetiq 1 is scheduled to launch tomorrow, 2nd September 2003, from the coast of Cornwall, UK, and aims to reach 132,000 feet or 25 miles in a flight that could last 12 hours. The balloon is so big (1,250 feet tall) that it should be visible from most of the UK, Ireland and Western France as it climbs. Good luck to them!"
Note: I fully realize that to reach that altitude, they would have to use helium. Grow a sense of humor.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
A balloon the height of the Empire State Building!? Whoa!
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
The first transmission from the balloon will be "Can you hear me now?
Trolling is a art,
In Canada they set altitude records all the time, but they don't use balloons. Obviously these fellows have merely started to import the Canadian ganja!
Proud patriot and republican voter.
Hm. If they could launch it again in a suitable time window, would this be eligable for the X-Prize?
I knew if I wanted to conceal the departure of our ancient alien visitors I too would construct a 1,200 foot balloon and tell people it was trying to break an altitude record.
This just prooves our alien overlords point - we deserve to get our brains eaten.
What is it with us Brits and balloons?
Is it that Phileas Fogg thang?
Get your own free personal location tracker
People use units that arent derived from bodyparts or the lenght of 1000 steps....
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
"Sir, how would you like to get higher than you've ever been in your life?"
(For the purists, I realize that The Simpsons is not the originator of the line, but the world seems to appreciate them more.)
Hate to break it youy bud, but I got my Daisy Brand Red-Ryder BB rifle, and your'e not going anywhere!
;)
Sorry to burst your bubble.
See George Carlin "Complaints and Grievances"
"I hope the next guy gets hits by lightning and flies around in little fart cycles *raspberry noises*"
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
...40,000 metres (40 kilometres) up in a balloon 381 metres tall...
Use the metric system!
I wonder if there will be an increased reporting of UFOs when this balloon goes up.
See here.
Selected quote:
"The two men will not eat during their mission, and they are hoping they will not have to go to the toilet either. A special fibre-free diet will begin three days before the trip in the hope that waste will be kept to a minimum."
All I can say is -- Holy crap!
The manhigh project in the late 50's early 60's included a parachute jump from about 100,000 feet. This was about the height that the Challenger exploded and the jump shows that the crew of the Chalenger could have survived had the technology developed in the manhigh project been avilable to them.
The guy who jumped reached a speed of over 700 miles per hour for part of the fall.
after seeing hot grits like this, I'm now convicing my wife that I should go high-altitude balooning asap. If only I could explain the mandatory difference in male and female costumes
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
is this ballon going to make it onto the chart with all the other space ships?
http://mirror.wolffelaar.nl/zardalu.sytes.net/
sure, its available here
but since that will get swamped, here's some cool details:
British summer holds the key as QinetiQ 1 balloon pilots prepare to fly to the edge of space
UK balloon pilots Andy Elson and Colin Prescot are now looking for an opportunity to launch their manned helium balloon, QinetiQ 1, on a clear calm day between end-July and mid-September 2003. In particular, the high winds of the jetstream need to be benign for a successful mission. The pilots aim to break the 40-year-old, US-held world altitude record for a manned balloon by ascending to 132,000ft (25 miles).
Sponsored in their attempt by QinetiQ, Europe's leading science and technology research organisation, the pilots are working closely with the Met Office. They are monitoring mission-critical advanced metrological data, in particular stratospheric conditions, as wind direction is critical for the balloon's trajectory.
Mission Control Director, Brian Jones commented: "The QinetiQ 1 team is set for launch and is now just waiting for the right weather to go. A sea launch is crucial to the success of the mission and North Cornwall offers us an ideal venue, with QinetiQ's own trimaran ship, RV Triton, providing the launch platform. The St Ives bay offers sheltered anchorage for RV Triton during the pre-flight preparations."
When the conditions are suitable, the pilots will announce a 72-hour countdown to the launch of the world's largest manned balloon, setting off from the North Cornish coast on its journey to the edge of space.
The QinetiQ 1 flight will last around 9-12 hours. The launch crew and pilots will start filling the balloon with helium in the early hours of launch day. The 1.6 tonnes of polyethylene material that make up the balloon's envelope takes about two hours to fill and, at launch, will stand upright at a massive height of 1,250 ft - seven times as tall as Nelson's Column, or the height of The Empire State Building. The balloon will rapidly ascend to 85,000 feet, after which it will slow down to a more gradual pace.
People within a 600-mile diameter footprint beneath the flight, should get a glimpse of the enormous balloon rising up into the sky. This means that the UK and much of France should be able to view the flight with the naked eye, as well as being able to see live TV images from on board QinetiQ 1.
At target altitude, the pilots will carry out a series of experiments and collect more information about an area of the stratosphere dubbed the 'Ignorosphere' due to the lack of recorded scientific data on the region.
It is at this point that Zephyr 3, a revolutionary unmanned solar plane designed by QinetiQ scientists and controlled by the balloon pilots from onboard QinetiQ 1, will beam back the amazing pictures of the voyage to mission control. Once the flight data has been captured the pilots will begin their descent, which should take three to four hours, before controlled 'splashdown' into the Atlantic.
Experimental balloon, launched from an experimental boat, wearing experimental space-suits, followed by an experimental spy-plane.
;)
Paid for by.... a large anonymous donation?
World attitude records and unprecedented volumes of hot air. Sheesh. Enough is enough!
/. team.
Cleverly veiled as a science story though. Nice job,
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Seriously, who still CARES about balloon records anymore? Isn't this this just a hobby for embarrasingly rich and bored, but not-quite-old-enough-to-call-it-quits-yet retirees?
I mean, is there some sort of practical application for a helium balloon larger than the frickin' Empire State Building? Please, enlighten me.
With a good high-gain antenna, they should be able to access wireless LANs for quite a distance. Were I in the vicinty, I would be honored to have them posting their progress through my network.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
...they'll achieve altitude records without even leaving the ground.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
Actually, they could've used kilolight-nanoseconds (light travels about 30 centimetres in a nanosecond, which is close enough to a foot).
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
If, hypothetically, a balloon were to ascend to the height of a geostationary orbit (36,000 miles?) would it stay there? Presumably it would have to be launched from the equator... (discounting the fact that a balloon couldn't possibly get that high because there's no damn air)
"Studies have shown that people who eat peanuts live longer than those who do not eat."
I submitted that story 2 hours earlier than the said individual and it was rejected, yet 2 hours later they accept it from someone else :-) well done Slashdot editors you really show your intelligence and consistency
...that's the second largest balloon I've ever seen.
I write this letter to you balloon pilots in hopes that when you are up there you will do me a favor.
About a week ago I tied lil Sparky, our family Chiwwawwawa, to about ten helium balloons to see if they could lift him off the ground. Needless to say, it did. After ten minutes of riding my Green Machine through town following poor old Sparks I lost sight of him some where near the Rockies.
So, if you happen to see Sparky some where up there in the great wild blue yonder during your travels will you fetch him for me? Don't know if this is possible cause the kid next door who is into h4ck1ng and Slashdot and all that other stuff keeps saying something about the decrease in atmospheric pressure at those heights and that either the balloons will pop or Sparky's large intenstines will explode. Either way bad news for Sparks. So PUH-LEASE keep on the lookout for a dog with ten balloons tied to his collar.
Jimmy Smigerwitz
PS. He will be the dog with the Red Power Rangers collar in case you see more dogs tied to balloons up there.
Acording to NOVA, the standing record is 113,739.9 ft (~ 35 km) was set in 1961. Back then however these people were pretty hardcore, as it was too technical to pilot the balloons back down, they would jump (with a parachute).
My grandfather and his brother were some of the balooning pioneers in the US, and I actually had the oppertunity (when I was much younger) to acompany my grandfater taken up in a balloon by Joe Kittinger (first altitude record of ~100,000 ft and the longest freefall to date-where he actually broke the sound-barrier unaided by propultion other than gravity). We didn't go to 100 kft but even back then (I think I may have been about 7) it was quite an experience.
"Should the suits fail at 35,000 feet (10,668 metres) Andy and Colin would lose consciousness. At 80,000 feet (24,384 metres) the pilots would die within a matter of seconds, as the low pressure would make their blood boil almost immediately."
ow...
The article says something like "It is hoped that [the tethered aircraft] will return to earth". It would be far more interesting if it didn't.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Actually it was British jerks (the word behind the first initial in BBC does give away the plot a bit). But yes, I do agree with your elegantly stated request. Believe it or not, the British Army went metric in, I think, around 1948. The rest of the country will doubtless catch up with the rest of Europe shortly after Hell freezes over.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I was part of the slashdot crowd that visited and saw the counter... but now it's on hold!
Those crazy bastards! I know what they saw about a tear not having serious effects but having this big balloon streak across europe as it deflates is kinda a freaky mental image! (pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt there goes the balloon)
When you drop all the erroneous U's from your alphabet (colour, etc.).
Oh, and drive on the correct side of the road, too!
What I found interesting from the BBC Radio, on the above, was that they will be wearing space suits in an open capsule....described as the type that you could reach out and touch something.
The northerly winds over southwest England show a considerable decrease through tomorrow as high pressure builds over the area.
Gotta love google:
here's a story
And I loved this quote:
Where else would it return to?... have a function (a la Google calculator) to convert idiotic units like feet and miles, that not even England uses anymore to something of common usage like meters and kilometers?
Useless units... Humpf!
It seems that AC Clark got things about right in "2001" when Dave Bowman goes from the pod into the emergency airlock the hard way. You can read more about it here.
See my journal, I write things there
The flight has been postponed due to bad weather. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_815395.html
> The balloon is so big (1,250 feet tall) that it
> should be visible from most of the UK, Ireland and
> Western France as it climbs.
Does anyone else find that overly optimistic? I'm thinking purely about the weather...
"Is it always foggy in Britain?"
"No, only when it isn't raining"
"Should the suits fail at 35,000 feet (10,668 metres) Andy and Colin would lose consciousness. At 80,000 feet (24,384 metres) the pilots would die within a matter of seconds, as the low pressure would make their blood boil almost immediately."
All this gory talk makes good copy, but it ain't necessarily so: You would lose fluids as vapour from your airways, but this would be gradual. Images of blood boiling in your tortured veins is simply alarmist. Your blood pressure is high enough, and your veinous system is elastic and resilient enough to prevent bulk boiling occurring. More details are here , and essentially all over the web. The seminal publication is "Bioastronautics Data Book, Second edition, NASA SP-3006", which I can't find online, unfortunately. Them Rocket Scientists sure know lotsa stuff!
T&K.
Political language
According to http://www.qinetiq1.com/72hourclockframe.html - it is now planned to launch on 3rd september.... Not 2nd.
Feet, miles... means nothing to me. I want to know what it is in *real* units, such as furlongs. :-D (seriously... get with the goddamn metric program already.)
The launch of the balloon has been delayed until Wednesday due to the weather. They reckoned that they could have launched tomorrow, but that the weather on Wednesday will be perfect so they'd rather wait a day. Apparently tomorrow will be spent taking an astronaut refresher course with the Russian advisers.
More at: UK balloon bid put back
feet and miles, that not even England uses anymore
I've read that air traffic controllers everywhere but a couple countries still use feet instead of meters as the basic unit of altitude.
Will I retire or break 10K?
At least the slashdot news should use metric units ...
Actually, I don't think the original request came from a Brit.
Brits don't use SI either.
It was postponed btw http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/319700 9.stm
"What is this, 1850? I hope they land in a sewage treatment plant and sink with the rest of the turds." -- George Carlin
Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology; Ain't got time to make no apology
Will the 132,000 ft. be at the top or the bottom of the 1250 foot high ballon?
So I didn't read the article. Sue me. After all, SCO and the RIAA will one of these days, so beat the rush!
The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
yes we do
... and can comfortably take a 3 inch hole (with minimal loss of helium). And the capsule is space-grade. Good luck scratching the paint.
read the actual site and not the news article for an update.
"The technology behind Zephyr could be used as a communications platform for mobile phones in remote areas, or disaster zones, or even by the military for surveillance."
:p
No, I don't see why they would try to do what Nextel did. In an effort to cover the entire USA with coast to coast wireless communications 2-way walkie talkie, they built that 400,000 foot radio tower. That covers a lot more area than these baloons that only go 132,000 feet.
maybe you should actually read the thread, retard. the original poster was whinging there was no use for this so I pointed out one of the uses you'd see if you actually RTFA.
nobody mentioned men in black or privacy but you. I don't know what your problem is but I suspect medication would be a good idea.
Surely that'd be "Hey, I can see my house from here".
David.
informative
MOD PARENT UP
Thank you.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
...they can beat this guy's record
Wonder if anybody has noticed but the Launch has been delayed. Its will now take place on September the 3rd. "Like the other guys said its just a load of Hot Air"
The purpose of existance is to find the perfect sig
They have good parachutes. Just in case. Some bottled oxygen probably houldn't hurt either.
C|N>K
In case anybody is reading this far, the launch is on hold until 3-9 due to inclement weather.
"Conditions were not suitable for the launch. All being well, it will happen as planned on Wednesday morning," said the spokesman.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
The original altitude was given in feet, which is valid as that is the standard unit used in aviation worldwide, however when converting to units understandable by normal humans, they should have converted to miles and km so that more than ~10% of the world's population (ie. Britain and the US) can understand it. That there are always a lot of comments whenever someone posts in non-SI units is not because these people are anal-retentive and overly fussy, but rather that most people get fed up with journalistic laziness forcing them to constantly convert to something meaningful.
They have postponed the flight until tomorrow (3rd) since there was to much cloud cover. The weather forecast for Wednesday is perfect, though...
-duncan
balloon attempt on hold..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
that we have this seedy looking gray cloud clover over the whole country for the last few weeks. Can't see a building 1km away.
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
We already do. (the left)
We weren't forced to change over by Napoleon to remind us that we were a conquered people.