Big Buckyball Balloons?

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Vortexx, Apr 17, 2003.

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  1. Vortexx Skull & Bones Spokesman Registered Senior Member

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    The balloons that reach the highest altitudes currently are hydrogen weatherballoons.

    Proposing a balloon based upon the buckyball molecule, but instead let's say with a size of 1 metre and a vacume instead of gas inside (buckyballs like nanotube are known for their strength and should be able to handle the pressuredifference with flying colours. The hull of this vacuum balloon, just like small buckyballs should be just 1 atom thick, combined with the vacume, delivering the best mass to lift ratio that one could possibly imagine....

    I got this idea based upon the Magdeburger hemispheres, but these globes were made of steel to prevent imploding, but giving it a negative mass to lift ratio. Upon till now there wasn't any material known to be light yet strong enough to let the magdeburger hemispheres fly.

    How high do you think a gigantic buckyball could fly ? Reaching the lower bounderies of space (100-150 km) ? In this case it would provide a nice high-altitude launch platform for small satellites....
     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2003
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