would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?

what would be the advantage of reaching space if you could not go
beyond the boundary of the atmosphere. unless you can accelerate at a
minimum of 33 feet per second (gravity +1 foot per second) at a
shallow angle (mostly towards the earth, with a small part of the
thrust pushing you into orbital speed), you ll simply fall back to
earth when the balloon releases you. with the balloon still attached,
you cant accelerate to that speed.

if you can accelerate at 33 feet per second, then you can climb out
of the atmophere without going into orbit and without the balloon. i
heard of one idea that started with a vessel going horizontal on a
runway until it got to 100 miles an hour (acclerating at 32 feet per
second), then turning its nose towards space. as long as it kept
accelrating at 32 feet per second, it ballanced the pull of the earth
and maintained a speed of 100 miles an hour. since it was a rocket,
once it reached space it kept going for a time. once it had sufficent
altitude it turned its nose perpendicular to its climb, and
accelrated that way. if it had gained sufficent altitude, by the time
it fallen back as far as it climbed, it would have accieved orbital
speed. the guy that created this idea planned on getting 2000 miles
up (20 hours) and believe the smaller engine needed would counter the
amount of fuel he would need. i dont think it ever went anywhere.
perhaps when we have better ion engines we can do that.

--- In spacesettlers@...m, wrote:
>
> attaining orbit yes, in the sense of needing to go 15,000+ mph, but
to reach
> the edge of space?
>
> From: "ANTIcarrot"
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 8:24 AM
> Subject: RE: [spacesettlers] would you like to fly in my beautiful
balloon?