3 ms·
Don't balloons expand in the day and contact at night a bit due the sun heating the gas inside? Couldn't this stretch/release weaken the material a little and r
by kylehotchkiss 8y ago
Don't balloons expand in the day and contact at night a bit due the sun heating the gas inside? Couldn't this stretch/release weaken the material a little and result in potential gas leaks?
To counteract this, I recall reading about people trying to send balloons across the Atlantic and needing to use ballast to stabilize the altitude and handle the gas losses. I wonder how DARPA can go without this requirement, as Helium really likes to escape whatever it's trapped inside of.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sehugg 8y agoMaybe the balloon could condense water in its environment and electrolyze it to refill itself with the produced hydrogen. (Though I'm pretty sure you also need salt.)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- thrower123 8y agoIf a balloon is relatively small, and designed never to come down, would it be such a bad idea to use hydrogen as the lifting gas? We're understandably a little gunshy about using hydrogen after the Hindenburg, but surely we could come up with some safer designs now.
- FlyMoreRockets 8y agoHydrogen is a great lifting gas, but because the molecule is so small, it leaks out easily.
- londons_explore 8y agoThere is very little water in the air at those altitudes. Also, electrolysis uses a lot of energy.