Ken's Ships of the Sky

From: Jeff Davis (jdavis@socketscience.com)
Date: Sat Mar 18 2000 - 02:47:35 MST


Ken Clements writes:

>I became interested in this subject, not for vacuum replacement of simple
>balloons, but because it leads to the possibility of designing stratospheric
>stations that are "ships of the sky." This is a very large paraboloid
structure
>that floats in the high atmosphere the way a boat floats on water.

<snip very interesting thought experiment that follows>

Very nifty and elegant idea Ken. Employs principles closely related to my
evacuated-orbital-launch-tube-on-the-spine-of-an-inflated-balloon-ramp
idea. It's 1:40 AM, so I can't explore it right now, but soon.

                        Best, Jeff Davis

           "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                                        Ray Charles



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