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T H E B I G S PA C E
B A L LO O N
? ? SPACE BALLOON? ???????????????????????????????????
and insurance premiums in using
Hydrogen compared with Helium,
making the cost of Hydrogen not
worth the potential risk.
It is possible to climb higher
than this by heating the gas in
balloon by making use of solar
radiation ( sunlight) causing the
gas to expand further, but this
then requires a bigger balloon
envelope for the gas to expand
into, the balloon material needs
to be thinner to reduce its weight,
which in-turn increases the risk of
the balloon fabric ripping.
The Big Space Balloons
envelope will be designed to have
We are not looking to break
a volume of around 400,000 cubic any altitude records with the Big
metres when fully inflated at our Space Balloon as the main aim
target altitude of approx. of 30km
is to try out new technologies,
(120-130,000 feet )
such as the solar balloon skin, but
ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014
the higher the better in terms of