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

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 02:51:28PM -0400, Dan Clemmensen wrote:

> must be counterbalanced. Eventually, lift and drag go away and we are in 
> a pure ion thrust regime, but this thrust must also be counterbalanced. 

I think we're accepting quite a lot on pure faith here. It sure is a smart
idea (I've first read about similiar stuff some 25 years ago), but no one has
operated an ion thruster in the stratosphere. In terms of thrust/weight unit
ion thrusters are horrible. Assuming one can push a large-crossection bubble
to hypersonic speeds with some 100 N thrust (a rather large if, as hypersonic
drag of large bubbles is not something we're familiar with), in a mere week,
will the thin bubble survive the plasma etching ordeal? Can we fortify it
with a ceramics/metal oxide layer, and how heavy is this going to be?

A thorough treatment of that is well worth a dissertation in aerospace
studies, and quite beyond the scope of this list.

> So, will it take less mass to maintain the shape with hydrogen pressure, 
> or with structural elements?

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