To Orbit

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A weather balloon costs less than $50, has a lift capacity of a couple of pounds when inflated with hydrogen and has a bursting altitude of in excess of 80,000 feet.

It seems reasonable that if all things were equal and the balloon was larger it could carry more weight.

It seems reasonable that if all things were equal and the balloon were made of stronger material that it would ascend higher before it burst.

Graphene is one hundred times stronger than steel. It is so lightweight that less than an ounce has a surface area of more than a football field.

Graphene is also impervious to Helium...much less Hydrogen. A graphene balloon filled with H2 does not leak.

Graphene has other neat properties. It has the potential to be used to make solar electric cells. It has the potential to make really good batteries and supercapacitors and computer circuits and stuff.

Suppose….that when (not if) we develop the ability to make industrial quantities of Graphene with custom capabilities? Suppose the inevitable price decreases is similar to that of most high tech gear?

Suppose...some innovative person or organization (like SpaceX or Boeing) were to (extrude, construct, build, grow, ...whatever) a really flipping LARGE balloon. Really, really large. (Think miles, not feet.) and fill it with Hydrogen.

How high could it go? How much payload could it carry?

Suppose that the exterior of the graphene lift envelope were configured as a solar cell and produced electricity. How much electricity could square MILES of photocells generate? In the near vacuum way up there? No air to block the sunlight?

Suppose the balloon was shaped like a lifting body...a giant wing?

Suppose that they put one or more electric motor on it to power really big propellers to push them to max speed and altitude..

.and when the wing wouldn’t lift no more, and the propellor wouldn’t push no more due to the almost non existent air..that they switched to ion thrusters, and used hydrogen as reaction mass.

Keep on trucking.

Around and around and around the earth in an outward spiral.

Wonder how high and how fast they could go?

Floating to Space: The Airship to Orbit Program

• Challenging the reader to consider what is possible, this book reveals an entirely new concept for getting into space—Airship to Orbit (ATO). Photographs and details are provided from the nearly 100 development flights conducted so far, along with new findings such as life 20 miles up and mile high plasma volcanoes. The blueprints and economic details of hypersonic airships and cities floating at the edge of space are all included, bringing the subject out of scientific journals and fantasy pages and into the public eye.