[ExI] question re "honkin' big cannon" space launch

[Dagon Gmail]

Let me get lateral (and possibly a bit over the top) here but ideas emerge
not
from being cautious.

High altitude balloons can lift payload. The ratio between balloon and
payload
is clearly very small. Even then, linking two balloons next to another,
somewhere
on a high mountain with consistently related weather conditions, would allow
some level of cabling or even structure to be held aloft. WW2 zeppelins
allowed
hotels with accomodations, chefs and cargo to be held aloft at altitudes not
far
above sea level. I am sure with carbon nanotubes we can do better. So lets
assume a continuous uninterrupted structure of helium balloon compartments,
leading up from kilomanjaro, like a monstrous big sausage.

The hindenburg cost 2.500.000. There are arguments it would be more
expensive
today, but also arguments it would cost less. The hindenburg was about 250
meters long. Would it fair to say that at todays cost, with massproduction
included, 100 meter of "hindenbergium" tether would cost about "a few"
million, sans
launch rail. If that's the case, elevating one up from a high mountain at a
45 degree
angle would mean a strand of celestial confetti of between 45 and 75
kilometer.
That would equate a total cost of under a billion, or the cost of launching
2
white elephants.

Now I wouldn't want to speculate what weight could be hoisted up on a rail,
and
what weights to what altitude. Leakage-proof fullerene fillament might make
a heck
of a difference in longterm price sustainability. Maybe elevating payload up
to
launch altitude not just by elevating, but fast, with a finged elevator cage
would
work as well. Plus maybe the balloons could be made to catch prevailing
winds
at a certain altitude and be shaped to be pushed upwards by high altitude
winds.

And you can scale this system. Just make the tubes fatter, so the lift
capacity
is bigger. I don't see this thing hoist up a multiton sat launcher into an
appreciable
altitude. Someone else than me should do a calculation of how much weight
can be lifted, just how high, what would that safe on launch cost of a
rocket
ploughing through atmosphere, what the angle of the baloon should be, and
what
maximum launch mass would be feasible. If I knew the parameters I would love

making a concept art of this thing, according to educated guesses of someone
who
calculated a sound architecture. Imagine the sight, such a thing trailing
half
'across the sky, from horizon to horizon like a fat black line through the
heavens.

The top altitude of the celestial serpent would be no more than 30
kilometers.
Thats above most atmosphere. So would the contrivance of such a bulky
elerctrical elevator system, available 24/7, make a difference in tackling
up rockets,
then dropping them, for autolaunch into LEO?  I think this rig would even be
profitable
if it were just used for space tourism.
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