X-Message-Number: 14399
From: 
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 06:42:47 EDT
Subject: Back to 21st century: Big Balloons

Assume you live in New-York, Moscow, London, Berlin or Paris.
We are in November and the sky is dull grey. Where to go to
sun bath if you have 4 hours free? The suborbital rocket for the
caribean beaches is not the solution.

12 km above your head there is plenty of sun, so go to the tethered
balloon floating 15 km above the suburb.You have an ascenter every
ten minutes. The one tenth cubic kilometer balloon has a 10 000 tons
capacity, sufficient for 3 000 users at a time. At $10/hour it is a cheap
way to get some sumer time in a tropical green house when the wind
wip the snow on the ground. The technology could be exploited from
the start of the century.

Yvan Bozzonetti.

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