2006-06-13 09:37:26 · 13 answers · asked by codrock 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
If you want to be defeatist about it then fine.
2006-06-13 10:36:27 · update #1
Thankyou freemethrecipie. the ball is now rolling.
Perhaps the others are all english perfectionists.
Perhaps they'd prefer the wording:
Why don't we use gas balloons as a cheap way of sending payloads at least a part of the way to space?
2006-06-13 10:39:16 · update #2
Canadian researchers are doing this actually. The rocket is lifted up as high as the balloon will go and then it is launched at a slightly upward angle. It saves a great deal of fuel and money and they maintain that Human manned rockets can be launched this way.
2006-06-13 09:48:43 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The gas in your balloon would only get your payload as high up as the balloon (minus the payload weight) would equalize with the atmospheric density. The higher the altitude, the lower the atmospheric density until you get into space, where there is no atmosphere. So basically, your balloon filled with some sort of gas, will never make it into space, where there is no (well, actually, very little) atmospheric gas.
This is the reason why hot air balloons or the Goodyear blimp don't just float off into space.
2006-06-13 09:55:16 · answer #2 · answered by Andrew H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What happens to a gas as the pressure surrounding it decreases?
A balloon can lift lighter payloads to an altitude at the very edge of space..but the payload would still need to be boosted to attain a stable orbit..no balloon can take a PAYLOAD INTO ORBIT.it will take it PART OF THE WAY
2006-06-13 09:45:51 · answer #3 · answered by Stan B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because there is no pressure in space, the balloons will pop instantly. And when this happens, the payload will come back to earth like a meterorite.
P.S. The balloon won't pop in space, it will pop when it reaches a certain height in the sky.
2006-06-13 09:45:02 · answer #4 · answered by boricua82991 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gas balloons will not be able to enter space first they will rise until the air is so thin even the light gas no longer rises higher than the outside air and if it ever made it into space the vacuum of space would cause the balloon to burst
2006-06-13 09:44:43 · answer #5 · answered by dch921 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because gas only floats as a principle of boyancy. Since the gas is lighter than air, it floats. It will only float so high until the air is too thin and the density of the gas will equal the density of the air and it will remain stationary. As there is no air in space, there would be nothing to be boyant against, so it would then be considered a propultionless mass in space and be subjected to gravity and have it pulled to the closest mass with the largest gravitational pull (i.e. earth) and crash back down to the planet.
2006-06-13 09:43:45 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because they cannot reach outer space.
They stop rising as soon as the density of the atmosphere is the same as the density of the gas in them. So they certainly can't rise as far as the vacuum of space.
2006-06-13 09:44:28 · answer #7 · answered by Epidavros 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
to leave the atmosphere u have to go a certain speed also and balloons dont have any speed besides the fact that they would be the same density like every1 said
2006-06-13 09:54:58 · answer #8 · answered by chevyman502 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they would not be able to generate enough speed to break through the earths atmosphere. Also the amount of heat it would create would explode a balloon
2006-06-13 09:45:26 · answer #9 · answered by jason h 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They won't reach space because the atmosphere is too thin at that high of an altitude.
2006-06-13 09:58:14 · answer #10 · answered by mortonshaun 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋