Several startups are preparing to lift tourists to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere in hot air balloons

Hot air balloons may seem like an outdated type of aircraft to some, but a number of startups are preparing to use them in combination with pressurized capsules to take tourists to the edges of the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.

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

China’s XPeng Releases $20,000 MONA M03 Max Electric Car With Free Autopilot

Chinese company XPeng has unveiled the MONA M03 Max, a car with an AI-powered autonomous…

13 hours ago

Sony lifts regional restrictions from Stellar Blade on PC, and a demo version of the game is released on Steam

The developers of the post-apocalyptic action game Stellar Blade from the South Korean studio Shift…

13 hours ago

The Slormancer — Diablo Without the Frills. Review

Played on PC Over the last couple of years, the Diabloid subgenre has clearly entered…

13 hours ago

Modder Already Added Two-Player Mode to Elden Ring Nightreign That Developers Forgot About

Less than a day has passed since the release of the cooperative roguelike action game…

13 hours ago

Microsoft delays development of portable Xbox, will focus on partner consoles

According to Windows Central, Microsoft has postponed development of its own portable gaming console with…

13 hours ago

A demo of Dispatch, a comedy game about a superhero agency from the former developers of Tales from the Borderlands and The Wolf Among Us, has been released on Steam

Developers from the American AdHoc Studio, founded by former Telltale Games, Ubisoft and Night School…

2 days ago