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Um doesn’t balloon assistance become increasingly effective in that case? Use your plentiful surface energy blow up a balloon and float it up past the upper atm
by SilasX 3y ago
Um doesn’t balloon assistance become increasingly effective in that case? Use your plentiful surface energy blow up a balloon and float it up past the upper atmosphere.
But they explicitly exclude that from this question:
>For our purposes, let's not explore alternative or hybrid launch systems or boost systems (such as balloons, planes, laser beams, space elevators etc.). Just stick to chemical propellant rockets.
- PeterisP 3y agoFloating a balloon to the upper atmosphere doesn't make a meaningful difference in escaping the planet, it saves you a few percent of the energy but you still have to do most of the work to bring it up to escape velocity. Going to space isn't about getting high, it's about getting fast.
- eru 3y agoThough you might be able to get past a substantial portion of the atmosphere, and that would help you get past a lot of sources of friction. Getting off a planet, even a heavy one, that doesn't have an atmosphere would be relatively easier, because you could 'just' build very long, flat rails to accelerate along.