Jan 8, 2024 02:21 AM
(This post was last modified: Jan 8, 2024 02:34 AM by C C.)
Scientists in New Mexico creating a 'vacuum balloon' that can travel 'as fast as a commercial airliner' with the goal to carry humans, drop deliveries & spy
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...ravel.html
EXCERPTS: Scientists at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory are working on a 'vacuum balloon' with a hard shell that could eventually carry humans and travel 'as fast as a commercial airliner'. Miles Beaux, a physicist at the lab, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that if his experiments are successful the craft could be used for transport, surveillance, and even for parcel delivery drones.
Beaux and his chemist colleague Chris Hamilton have been making small, hollow spheres out of a super-lightweight material called aerogel, then sucking the air out of them in an attempt to create a solid ball that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere – allowing it to hover. The 'vacuum balloons' would trump traditional helium or hydrogen balloons, which slowly lose their lift, and could potentially carry objects in the air indefinitely.
Patents filed for the potential craft contain diagrams that look intriguingly like tic tac-shaped UFOs encountered by Navy pilots in 2004, which hovered above the ocean and sped off with incredible acceleration. But Beaux says that although he has made quick progress since beginning in 2019 and is confident of ultimate success, his research is still a couple of years from actually producing a floating ball – let alone a supersonic 'tic tac'.
'We have not managed to make something float yet. But we have tested vessels that are 34 times the density of air,' Beaux said. 'And we have shown a proof of concept for making vessels that are 10 times the density of air. So we're within one order of magnitude of actually reaching air buoyancy.'
The physicist told DailyMail.com that he had dreamed of vacuum balloons ever since he first heard of the ultra-lightweight material aerogel. 'They're at least 98% empty space. So they're mostly made of nothing. I always had the idea that maybe you could make one of these, with a density low enough that it would float in air,' Beaux said.
[...] He compared the spheres filled with air to sunken ships filled with water. 'They're sunken vessels on the bottom of the ocean of air. And it's only by removing the air from the inside of the vessel that they will float,' he said.
[...] Beaux said his vacuum balloon could eventually be used by companies like Amazon and Walmart, which have filed patents for floating warehouses and delivery drones. He noted that gas-filled balloons last no longer than two years before sinking to earth, whereas a solid vacuum balloon could stay up indefinitely, making it perfect for scientific studies of weather, broadcasting of cell networks, or surveillance by spy agencies.
[...] In 2004, former top Navy pilot Commander Dave Fravor and his unit famously reported a white tic tac-shaped object descending 80,000 feet in less than a second, hovering above the ocean off the coast of Southern California, before shooting off at thousands of miles an hour.
'It'd be hard for me to imagine that this technology could explain those things,' Beaux said. 'It sounds like these are more mechanical lift-based or action force-based lift mechanisms as opposed to buoyancy.'
One company, Aerospherical Systems, has hinted at an alleged ability to build flying orbs.
According to its website, their technology involves a 'specialized sphere' that spins at 22,000 times per minute, whipping the air around it to create lift, a technique called the Magnus Effect. It is unclear whether these spinning balls are in use – and the company did not respond to a request for comment... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...ravel.html
EXCERPTS: Scientists at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory are working on a 'vacuum balloon' with a hard shell that could eventually carry humans and travel 'as fast as a commercial airliner'. Miles Beaux, a physicist at the lab, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that if his experiments are successful the craft could be used for transport, surveillance, and even for parcel delivery drones.
Beaux and his chemist colleague Chris Hamilton have been making small, hollow spheres out of a super-lightweight material called aerogel, then sucking the air out of them in an attempt to create a solid ball that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere – allowing it to hover. The 'vacuum balloons' would trump traditional helium or hydrogen balloons, which slowly lose their lift, and could potentially carry objects in the air indefinitely.
Patents filed for the potential craft contain diagrams that look intriguingly like tic tac-shaped UFOs encountered by Navy pilots in 2004, which hovered above the ocean and sped off with incredible acceleration. But Beaux says that although he has made quick progress since beginning in 2019 and is confident of ultimate success, his research is still a couple of years from actually producing a floating ball – let alone a supersonic 'tic tac'.
'We have not managed to make something float yet. But we have tested vessels that are 34 times the density of air,' Beaux said. 'And we have shown a proof of concept for making vessels that are 10 times the density of air. So we're within one order of magnitude of actually reaching air buoyancy.'
The physicist told DailyMail.com that he had dreamed of vacuum balloons ever since he first heard of the ultra-lightweight material aerogel. 'They're at least 98% empty space. So they're mostly made of nothing. I always had the idea that maybe you could make one of these, with a density low enough that it would float in air,' Beaux said.
[...] He compared the spheres filled with air to sunken ships filled with water. 'They're sunken vessels on the bottom of the ocean of air. And it's only by removing the air from the inside of the vessel that they will float,' he said.
[...] Beaux said his vacuum balloon could eventually be used by companies like Amazon and Walmart, which have filed patents for floating warehouses and delivery drones. He noted that gas-filled balloons last no longer than two years before sinking to earth, whereas a solid vacuum balloon could stay up indefinitely, making it perfect for scientific studies of weather, broadcasting of cell networks, or surveillance by spy agencies.
[...] In 2004, former top Navy pilot Commander Dave Fravor and his unit famously reported a white tic tac-shaped object descending 80,000 feet in less than a second, hovering above the ocean off the coast of Southern California, before shooting off at thousands of miles an hour.
'It'd be hard for me to imagine that this technology could explain those things,' Beaux said. 'It sounds like these are more mechanical lift-based or action force-based lift mechanisms as opposed to buoyancy.'
One company, Aerospherical Systems, has hinted at an alleged ability to build flying orbs.
According to its website, their technology involves a 'specialized sphere' that spins at 22,000 times per minute, whipping the air around it to create lift, a technique called the Magnus Effect. It is unclear whether these spinning balls are in use – and the company did not respond to a request for comment... (MORE - missing details)