Bloon
The research project for OpenThesis Fabrication 2010 is a collaboration between IAAC and Barcelona based space tourism company, Zero 2 Infinity.Their project, Bloon is a capsule that will travel to near space giving travellers the experience to view our planet in the most unique way. The four hour flight begins with a one hour ascent using an air balloon, followed by a 2 hour cruising phase at an altitude of 36km, with the final hour cruising back to the landing area using a parafoil. The capsule holds 4 passengers (plus 2 pilots) and has the benefits of zero emissions, no noise, no training sessions (anybody can travel), and will be powered by batteries and inert gas. The project for OpenThesis concentrates on the space capsule: the geometry, possible fabrication processes, and building a 1:1 prototype. The first phase consists of understanding the geometry of the capsule (a torus) supported by research in composite structures such as Automatic Fiber Placement technologies (AFP), and finally building a lightweight 1:1 prototype of one section of the capsule to be used for long term research into the design and fabrication of the capsule.
OTF Student: Nicholas Waissbluth
The research project for OpenThesis Fabrication 2010 is a collaborationbetween IAAC and Barcelona based space tourism company, Zero 2 Infinity.Their project, Bloon is a capsule that will travel to near space giving travellersthe experience to view our planet in the most unique way. The four hourflight begins with a one hour ascent using an air balloon, followed by a 2 hourcruising phase at an altitude of 36km, with the final hour cruising back to thelanding area using a parafoil. The capsule holds 4 passengers (plus 2 pilots)and has the benefits of zero emissions, no noise, no training sessions (anybodycan travel), and will be powered by batteries and inert gas.The project for OpenThesis concentrates on the space capsule: the geometry,possible fabrication processes, and building a 1:1 prototype. The first phaseconsists of understanding the geometry of the capsule (a torus) supportedby research in composite structures such as Automatic Fiber Placementtechnologies (AFP), and finally building a lightweight 1:1 prototype of onesection of the capsule to be used for long term research into the design and fabrication of the capsule.
