From: The Butterfly (salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com)
Date: 04/19/98
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 19:02:30 -0700 Message-Id: <199804200202.TAA26499@bootstrap.sculptors.com> From: The Butterfly <salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com> Subject: Re: Been kinda quiet, lately...
-From: Harmon Seaver <hseaver_at_harmon.bml.usouthal.edu>
-Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 22:25:20 -0500 (CDT)
-Reply-To: airships_at_sculptors.com
-
- When you're thinking about those giant gasbags, one thing to keep in
-mind is that helium manages to leak *through* most materials, and so
-requires frequent replenishment. And it ain't exactly cheap.
-
-Harmon Seaver hseaver_at_harmon.bml.usouthal.edu http://harmon.bml.usouthal.edu
True enough. That's one nice thing about the "Cloud 9"
megastructures. They don't use helium or other lifting gas, but work off of
pressure differential. This lets you use regular air, but the slightly
heated air insize is less dense than the cold air outside. When you get the
right size, the combined weight of the inner air *and* the entire structure
containing that air becomes less than the surrounding cold air, and the
whole thing floats.
Well, theoretically, anyway. No one's ever built a .5mile or larger
one to test it...yet.
--
Pat
___________________Think For Yourself____________________
Patrick G. Salsbury - http://www.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
Check out the Reality Sculptors Project: http://www.sculptors.com/
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"It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling
exception, is composed of others." -- John Andrew Holmes