[Re-Edited. See #4 kite shape, #5 solar launcher tracker]
Like cluster ballooning, but with many small solar heated balloons.

Next ideas:

1. Solar balloon improvements:
a. Wet the walls. H2O vapor is lighter than O2.
b. Insert hot water vapor when using the hair drier.
c. Instead of black, use a clear top and shiny Mylar bottom.
d. Add a lightweight heat collector/distributor (black aluminum foil, so that concentrated light is turned to heat)

2. Emptied air blimp. Use electric fans to empty the blimp, for effect similar to heating a hot-air balloon.

3. Emptied air improved solar blimp.

4. Shape it a bit like a kite, for takeoff, so quickly rises high up (of course tethered at first).

5. Solar Launcher tracker:
a. Wire-frame holders hold balloons in place during heating process, with an array of mirrors for fast heating. b. A manual tracker from ground - mirrors enhance the heating, (Can't be parabolic because of changing distance).
-- pashute, Mar 29 2011

Solar flying http://www.youtube....watch?v=x1q4Eql81sQ
Guy actually flies by solar heating! If you have the patience to watch. [pashute, Mar 30 2011]

History of solar balloons. http://ballonsolair.../en-historique2.htm
Dominic Michaelis actually made these! (clear with dark inside) [pashute, Apr 11 2011]

I'm going to try it out this Friday... hopefully.

Will post pictures and maybe a vid on youtube.
-- pashute, Mar 30 2011


I'd like to see that I think.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 31 2011


Some early trials failed. Will try again next week, with the listed improvements.
-- pashute, Apr 01 2011


I have to ask what is meant by //H2O is lighter than O2//? Liquid water is less dense than liquid oxygen, so water vapour is lighter than gaseous oxygen?
I don't think that wetting the walls of your balloon will do anything but make them heavier.

and //Use electric fans to empty the blimp, for effect similar to heating a hot-air balloon// has me baffled. You want to try and evacuate air from the balloon to create more lift?
I don't get it?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 01 2011


//clear top and shiny Mylar bottom// sp. "clear balloon incorporating a movable shiny hemisphere".

I'm not sure where the "cluster" comes in: surely if you have many small balloons the ones on the sun-side will shade the ones not.
-- FlyingToaster, Apr 01 2011


//water vapour is lighter than gaseous oxygen//

Yes. All gases have the same molar volume, and H20 has a lower molecular mass than O2 (it's 18/32ndths as dense).
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 01 2011


[pashute], the link doesn't work in the UK (copyright issues - it has been blocked). Is there another?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 01 2011


Search youtube for solar balloon. There are about four results. A large tube. One filled with a hair drier then hits a tree. A small all solar with camera that gets lost and is returned. And the human carrying one.

Boy coud i use one o them halfbaked nonquertyboards.
-- pashute, Apr 03 2011


Not from a ballon but from a blimp. In order to ACHIEVE the effect that a ha balloon has.
-- pashute, Apr 03 2011


//4. Shape it a bit like a kite, for takeoff, so quickly rises high up (of course tethered at first).//
I think this, and waiting for some wind, would be key to this entire project, not just for take-off.

[FT] the solar collectors are clustered, not the balloons.
-- 4whom, Apr 04 2011


An uninflated balloon wet on the inside heated to above the boiling point of water at the external pressure would be lighter than air if the amount of water inside it was sufficiently small and the material composing it didn't melt or decompose at that temperature. Maybe heat it with some lenses or a parabolic mirror?
-- nineteenthly, Apr 04 2011


You don't have to boil a wet and warm surface for the water to evaporate.

I edited the idea: added the word "vapor" after H2O, so that you won't think I was talking about liquid water being lighter than air. (Boy, you have to spell things out at halfbakery. You'd think a few words were enough to spell out an idea.)

I wet some partially empty plastic bags and sealed them. Within a short while the bags looked like covered with mist, and within 5 minutes they were inflated and totally clear = evaporated with no signs of water. At about 5 in the evening the bags started showing signs of mist.

[12 April, 2011] I just saw wikipedia Solar balloon. It turns out that clear plastic on one side was used by Frederick Eshoo in 1978 for a manned solar balloon flight!
-- pashute, Apr 04 2011



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