Possible payload for a future airship

What sort of applications need low temperatures and pressures? Freeze-drying being an obvious one.... But something that needs to have a huge source of medium-quality vacuum. Electron-beam welding would be much easier done up there, so maybe assembling spacecraft. I really don't know, that's why I'm asking.

Here's an article in New Scientist proposing the use of high altitude balloons for telescopes.

http://www.newscientistspace.com/articl ... ubble.html

Have you had any involvement with NASA on this John?

There has been a long and excellent track record of flying telescopes on high altitude balloons. Several hundred have been flown.

JPA hasn't flown any telescopes although we did get a great daytime Venus pic from a CCD camera once. Flying a telescope would be a fun mission but you can't do everything.

You might get college funding for a scope mission. Perhaps NSSL needs a ride as well for storm research.

It is true than many astronomical payloads including telescopes have been flown previously on high-altitude balloons. However, none of these (as far as I know) were used to image faint stars or other astronomical objects (meaning long deep exposures) at night resulting in image resolutions approaching anything like those possible with the 2.4m Hubble Space Telescope mirror(ie., FWHM = 0.045 arcsec).

What this new proposal outlines is a means of yielding resolutions in the OPTICAL
(300 -900 nm) using a relatively small telescope (0.5 m) that would be higher than possible from ANY ground based telescope - even using 8-10 m giants like Keck. The telecope need only to be flown at an altitude of around 75-85 kft, i.e., just about twice as high as a commerical airline flies.

EDIT: quote made working moderator

Hello John

how about flying some seeds on one of your vehicles if you have room you could sell them on your website afterwards for people to grow all over the world. How about that for a green suggestion?

Hello, Andy Hill,

what about making this a test of seeds to be carried to Mars? Or a filed of experiments for futurely growing plants in space stations or space vehicle which is under discussion in the Technology section under the title "The food-problem"?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

May be a Dark Sky Station would be a much better test bed for what I was proposing.

Since I yesterday mentioned the finding that fungi make use of radiation instead of dying by it a DSS might be an ideal opportunity to experiment and find out if astronauts might be able to get food based on those fungi.

jpowell already has mentioned in another thread in this section that the thinnes of air and a few other properties are similar to those on Mars - in so far it could be found out on a DSS if fungi might be taken and grown on Mars.

And this test and experiments would be quite cheaper than doing them in the International Space Station.

...



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

May be a Dark Sky Station would be a much better test bed for what I was proposing.

Since I yesterday mentioned the finding that fungi make use of radiation instead of dying by it a DSS might be an ideal opportunity to experiment and find out if astronauts might be able to get food based on those fungi.

jpowell already has mentioned in another thread in this section that the thinnes of air and a few other properties are similar to those on Mars - in so far it could be found out on a DSS if fungi might be taken and grown on Mars.

And this test and experiments would be quite cheaper than doing them in the International Space Station.

...



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)