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

[Dan Clemmensen]

Eugen Leitl wrote:

>On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 02:51:28PM -0400, Dan Clemmensen wrote:
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>>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. 
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>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.
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Yes. This is the first I've read about this, and I like the 
stratospheric mass driver a lot
better for the orbiter stage. The project does say that their third 
stage is not well studied yet.