[amsat-bb] Near Space Flight Question

[Miguel Barreiro]

Short answer: by inflating the balloon only partially.

As the balloon goes higher, atmospheric pressure decreases and thus the
balloon grows bigger and bigger, eventually to the point of bursting.
By inflating the balloon partially you give the smaller amount of contained
gas more room to expand, hopefully reaching a stable flotation height
before bursting. That comes at the cost of decreased payload and climb
rate, obviously.
 Pardon me asking this question as it only relates to amateur satellites in
a small way as the packages I refer to don't achieve escape velocity.

Over the years I've followed the work being done regarding flying radio
packages on balloons.

I'm familiar with the scenario of a balloon carrying a package that will go
to a predetermined altitude, bursting then returning to the ground.

With the advent of the round-the-world experiments with small party
balloons, how do project organizers keep such equipment in the jet stream
so that they travel long distances without the equipment going so high that
the balloon bursts?




Dave Marthouse N2AAM
dmarthouse at gmail.com
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