My friend and I love flying kites. We were theorizing the other day about this:
1. If we had 30,000 feet of line, would the kite be able to get up that high, or would it snap off?
2. Are there any cameras we could attach to the kite?
3. Has anyone done experiments like this before? What happened?
4. Is it theoretically possible to fly a kite all the way into orbit? What would happen to the kite once it started orbiting the Earth?
2007-03-01 08:54:34 · 3 answers · asked by bonnechancepetitchat 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
A kite could get up to 30,000 feet but bear in mind it would need to lift the weight of the string - you'd need strong but lightweight string (you'd also need permission to fly that high) and you'd need a very strong and lightweight kite. With some careful design considerations and the right conditions it is theoretically possible.
You could attach a lightweight camera but a kite tends to blow about a lot so you'd get very wobbly pictures. A friend of mine attaches cameras to 'blimps' (mini balloons) and films events from above.
The record for the highest kite flying is 12,741 feet (3801 metres) so no-ones ever been to 30,000 feet.
A kite under it's own power (wind) wouldn't get high enough to get into an orbit above earth. If it had some extra power (in which case it wouldn't be a kite) then it could get into orbit. Once in orbit your rocket-kite would continue drifting forever in the direction it was travelling. Or if you were able to bring it to a complete standstill it would just float there.
2007-03-01 10:38:11 · answer #1 · answered by Trevor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
4 A kite will not fly into a vac ***.
2 & 3 I had sone string that was very long and strongI only got to about 5,000 with 3 kites on about 30 ft leaders tied to the main line. Just 1 kite we couldnt get more than 1`500 ft.
2007-03-01 12:11:49 · answer #2 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Standard kite string isn't strong enough to support the weight of 30,000 feet of itself, so it would break long before you got the full 30,000 feet unreeled. And even if it didn't, a standard kite could not support the weight of 30,000 feet of string. The weight of the string would drag the kite down.
2007-03-01 09:04:59 · answer #3 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋