Hot air balloons may seem like an outdated type of aircraft to some, but a number of startups are preparing to use them in combination with pressurized capsules to take tourists to the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere. You won’t be able to experience weightlessness, but you can bring a whole bunch of interesting photographs.
Image source: Space Perspective
CNBC reports on the efforts of several young companies to develop a similar “stratospheric tourism” industry using balloons and pressurized luxury capsules they lift. Gas-filled balloons, according to the developers, will be able to lift capsules with tourists tens of kilometers relative to the earth’s surface. The flight will last about 6 hours, and there will be no special physical requirements for potential participants. The ascent and descent of the aircraft will be quite smooth, and tourists simply will not be able to experience the state of weightlessness at these altitudes. Anyone who is not contraindicated from air travel on airliners will be able to take part in flights on such balloons.
In most cases, as the source notes, we are talking about lifting balloons to a height of 24 to 30 km above the Earth’s surface. From the point of view of most American authorities, the boundary of space is the earth’s atmosphere, located at a height of about 80 km from the surface of the planet. Accordingly, balloons will not be able to climb so high, but representatives of the Space Perspective company explain that at an altitude of more than 30 km, the atmosphere around the aircraft is very rarefied, and the sky has a deep black color, and from the point of view of a tourist, this is very close to the feeling of being in space .
The World View company is going to provide the space created for such flights with a central bar, in addition to separate compartments for tourists, as well as a bathroom. In addition to the American Space Perspective and World View, the French Zephalto is also planning to develop a similar type of activity. The latter has already sold out all tickets for upcoming flights at a price of $184,000 per seat, while their prices for the first two companies range from $50,000 to $125,000. So far only Zephalto has tested its capsules with people on board, although at a much lower altitude compared to with a target of 24 km. Since all three companies are start-ups, there is no guarantee that they will eventually be able to begin commercial operations transporting tourists in hot air balloons to the upper reaches of the stratosphere.