Where is Brad Guth, aka "GuthBall" when you need him ...

On Tuesday, December 23, 2014 at 2:37:18 PM UTC+13, Double-A wrote:
On Monday, December 22, 2014 6:44:52 AM UTC-8, Hägar wrote:
NASA wants to build a floating city above the clouds of Venus
and GuthBall's mentally deranged rants and "Where is Waldo"
theatrics would come in handy just about now:

http://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-wants-...tag=YHF65cbda0

Especially with all the "A. I. Structures" he saw whenever he
lit up his crack pipe ....


Damn! I was about to suggest such a floating city on Venus, but my idea has already been stolen! High in the Venusian atmosphere there might even be breathable air, along with the moderate temperatures.

Double-A

At 55 km altitude the temperature of Venus' atmosphere is 27C and the pressure is equal to half that at sea level on Earth. The density is 0.98 kg/m3.

At half the air pressure of sea level, an atmosphere that's 78% Nitrogen and 22% oxygen masses 0.61 kg/m3.

So, this is a buoyancy of 0.37 kg/m3.

http://www.google.com/patents/US3203144

The weight of a laminar geodesic dome, that is compactly folded into a small space, masses 3.11 kg/m2.

So, a 2,000 kg shell that has a 28.61 meter diameter would create 4,539.1 kg lift, which means another 2,539.1 kg of payload can be carried inside the shell.

A 70,000 kg shell forms a 169.29 meter diameter sphere. It has a buoyancy of 869.88 tonnes! This is interesting because an External Tank fully fuelled masses 710 tonnes! So, we can see that we can send a balloon, inflate it with air, and lift enough weight to gather enough propellant to send a payload back to Earth.

An empty external tank has a total tank volume of 2,050.8 cubic meters and weighs 26,500 kg. At 32 km altitude, filling the tanks with hydrogen gas, displaces enough Venusian atmosphere to float the empty tank at that altitude.

A 22 tonne inflatable geodesic dome filled with hydrogen that's 94.90 meters in diameter can lift 806 tonnes.


2000 643.0868167 28.61 12,267.84 4,539.10 2,539.10
70000 22508.03859 169.29 2,540,213.83 939,879.12 869,879.12