Re: Question about using balloons to get into space

From: Joann Evans (bondage_at_frontiernet.net)
Date: 09/04/04 

To: sci-space-tech@moderators.isc.org
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2004 02:27:47 GMT

richie086 wrote:
>
> Hey.. I have a question.
>
> would the use of balloons to lift some sort of delivery vehicle or
> rocket into the very upper atmosphere work? has this ever been attempted?
>
> What got me thinking about this was a show about a US Air Force captain
> (joke kittenger) back in 1960, riding a balloon up to 100,000 feet and
> then jumping off of the platform he was sitting on. I understand he
> was wearing a space suit and you would very easily die if exposed at
> such elevations. After seeing the movie that was taken from a film
> camera attached to him somehow, it's very obvious that he was at the
> very edge of space. Isn't half the cost of putting the space shuttle up
> or any rocket into orbit due to how much the fuel costs?
>
> I'm sure this has been thought of, it's just a question I've always
> wondered about and the people here seem a lot more willing to answer
> questions rather than on some other groups where everyone is too busy
> flaming everyone else rather than helping others :)
>
> Richie086

   Here's some examples:

http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/rockoon.htm

http://fly.hiwaay.net/~bbrown/rockoon.htm

http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/aboutjet.html

http://www.skyrocket.de/space/index_frame.htm?http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_lau/farside.htm

http://www.davinciproject.com/ (A manned, X Prize entrant)

   Remember, while starting from those altitudes helps, espically in
terms of optomizing engine nozzle expansion (it can be a more reasonable
compromise between launch altitude pressure and vacuum, rather than
sea-level pressure and vacuum) and being in a lower-drag part of the
atmosphere (Len Corimer has had much to say about this, though in a
different context), you still don't have any meaningful horizontal
velocity, if the idea is to get into orbit. A spacecraftwith enough
propellant to do that, plus carryauseful payload, would likely be too
heavy for baloon launch.

   The weather conditions under which one can start are more limited, as
well.

   It's a useful approach for sounding rockets and other suborbital
activity, but not so much for acheiving orbit. 

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