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Will we ever get those structural vacuum balloons that enable more floaty things, like the mites in Neal Stephenson’s “Diamond Age?” Or like the giant floating
by dr_dshiv 4y ago
Will we ever get those structural vacuum balloons that enable more floaty things, like the mites in Neal Stephenson’s “Diamond Age?” Or like the giant floating geodesic ball proposed by buckminster fuller?
I was reading about early Royal Society proposals for flying machines that were based on vacuums in copper balloons. Can any material at any size support a vacuum that can displace the weight of the material? (ie, and thus support lighter than air flight via vacuum)
- TylerE 4y agoNo, even carbon nanotubes aren’t strong enough. Hydrogen is already nearly a vacuum from a lift prospective (it’s only about 5% as dense as air at the same pressure).
- euroderf 4y agoThose "structural vacuum balloons" are a nice idea but they will have to be made to degrade in sunlight - or else chunks of them will end up cluttering the upper atmosphere, sorta like low-flying space junk.