[extropy-chat] balloon stations at the edge of space

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, May 23, 2004 at 06:04:46PM -0700, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> Except for the total mass these things can lift.  Put
> too many colonists, their personal effects, and life
> support for them on (or supported from) a balloon and
> watch it fall.  Oh, and the helium resupply (helium,

The only way to achive a large terrestrean launch 
capacity, is via a Moon bootstrap. 

> being such a small atom and not needing to form
> molecules, tends to slowly leak through almost any
> surface; they mention the result of this deep in the
> article) - helium is uncommon enough that the US was

Helium lifts 97% of hydrogen. I can't find the leakage rate of hydrogen
vs. helium off hand.

> able to hold it as a strategic resource in the early
> 20th century, and it still needs to be mined today
> (unconstrained atmospheric helium tending to float
> away as it does).

So use hydrogen. It will require dedicated rescue systems for manned
stratospheric stations in case of catastrophic loss, to safely land the
pressurized cabin (it comes down really quickly, and gets surprisingly fast
in the process).

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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