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Charlotte Pendragon's avatar

Math isn’t my forte so I can’t check the calculations, but I think this is intriguing! Thank you Jim!!

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Jim in Alaska's avatar

Your welcome Charlotte. This was, of course just a Proof Of Concept, a back of an envelope level test, not a plan or design.

If serious I would need to calculate total load; weight of habitat, balloon, food, equipment, cables, etc, etc., and many more etc., but a fun exercise none the less.

On the other hand a shoutout; "Hey Elon, after you get bureaucracy un-bureaucrated, Mars inhabited, if you've a spare minute, I've a great idea for you!" GRIN

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Joel Wisniewski's avatar

Are you okay?

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Jim in Alaska's avatar

Yep.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Fascinating stuff! I skimmed over the math, since I am not a math guy. But very cool.

So, here’s another potential wrinkle: what’s the radiation like up there?

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Jim in Alaska's avatar

Sea level, maybe 0.1 to 0.2 microsieverts /h

At 18 miles 0.5/h, maybe one or two orders of magnitude higher on occasion (Solar flares, etc.).

Shielding should be calculated and considered, as it is in existing space stations and possible lunar L4 habitats.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Understood!

Kind of reminds me of when I was walking through Tver, Russia, in 1991. There was a thing on a building that looked like the kind of digital clock you’ll see on a bank. But the “time” looked bizarre, so I asked my gf about it. She said it was measuring radiation in the air (from Chernobyl, of course) in micro-roentgens.

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