Our 100th Mission
Here’s a sketch of the upcoming Away 38 mission.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 5:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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I have a couple questions. Do you lose your Helium every time you fly? Is it an expensive portion of your expenditures? Could you incorporate a small tank and pump to bleed helium back into, and bring the vehicle back to ground with out balloon pop? Forgive me if these questions are stupid.
I should leave this answer to our experts. But, the helium isn’t a huge expense and since one tank to store the helium weighs 120 pounds and our entire launch platform needs to be under about 20 pounds the weight alone would not allow for a launch.
Thank you Anthony for your reply. Based on your reply I would venture to say that my questions may have been a little silly. So, At the current size of the missions helium is not a huge expense, but when mission are scaled up will it become more substantial? At the current scale is it 1 tank of helium per mission? Couldn’t the tank be much smaller and made of carbon fiber with some kind of bladder to prevent leakage since it only has to bias the volume of oxygen displaced to manipulate bouency and not completly deflate the balloon? Helium I believe is a basically non renewable resource on the earth and therefore may become more expenssive in years to come as reserves are depleated. Can’t wait for mission 100.Keep up the good work guys.
So when is the next flight scheduled for???
We need to get through the vehicle full up test before we can set the date. We’re pushing pretty hard, I’m just dying to fly.
Can you drop rockets instead of a launch platform?
I read where you lauch rockets vertically from a platform lifted by a balloon.
I wondered if it would be better to drop these rockets from a balloon so that they already have speed when the engine starts?
These dropped rockets could also have wings to help direct the rocket back to space – these wings could be dropped when not needed.
Just a thought.
Keep up the great work!
PS Another idea I’ve had is an electromagnet sled to launch rockets, possibly up the side of a mountian?