Monday, October 28, 2013

Into Space Via ... Balloon?

Dig this.


More info here.

1 comment:

tim eisele said...

While the video is very pretty, I suspect that the people who made it have never seen a high-altitude helium-filled balloon take off. There's none of this "slowly lift off the pad" business, the ones I've seen have all taken off like a bat out of hell.

I'm kind of surprised at the retractable landing skids, too. Why on earth would you need or want retractable landing gear on a balloon gondola? It's not like it needs to be streamlined or anything. I think it would be more important that the landing gear be able to handle what is very likely to be a pretty rough touchdown.

Overall, I think the whole operation would be less serene and majestic than they show, with a much more abrupt takeoff, and a considerably more terrifying landing.