[pp.int.general] File Sharing in Space

[Erik Lönroth]

> Exactly why I was asking about height. A balloon would last no more than
> 2-3 days at best, before it's buoyancy was compromised, and the pressure
> difference means it'd be expensive to make one that went high enough.

I'm currently in a discussion with a chemist that has a way of
preparing baloons that would prolong the flight-time by up to 25
times. I think that exploring every aspect of the "baloon-track" is
good, since the problems of powering a thingy into orbit is far more
complicated. It is also alot more expensive and difficult to test.
Lets learn how to crawl, before you learn how to walk.

Sending a site into orbit is offcourse alot more StarWars - but I have
the feeling that it will fail because its a too large problem to start
with.

However - learning from this project will open doors...

Come up with a solution for the baloon and we are in a different
situation. I'll post the discussion with the chemist later if it leads
somewhere.

/Erik

> Thus, a powered ascent to orbit is the only way (which makes
> geostationary feasible). A LEO is about the best we can hope for (and we
> need to do it from one of a few special ranges, because of airspace
> regulations). We're looking at at least 400km up though for a decent orbit.
>
> My quick estimates are that it will cost at least $1M though. Perhaps
> one of the cheapest solutions at present, might be a registered light
> manned dirigible, might be able to get a day's airtime from it, and as
> long as the person aboard is a pilot, it'll work under most laws. It's
> certainly the first step for proof-of-concept.
>
> Andrew
>