Posted on 09/17/2011 7:30:16 AM PDT by Red Badger
The only thing that makes sense is to pump it from the ground up to the balloon. For a 1 km elevation change, you would need to pump water to a pressure of at least 1420 psig just to overcome the elevation change, without taking into account any losses due to friction while flowing.
This would require a pretty thick “hose” at ground level. It could get thinner at higher elevations where the water pressure would be less. Something like what is used in hydraulic systems, or pressurized water cleaning (hydroblasting) machines, would be required.
If the hose is 1/4” inside diameter, the weight of water in a 1 km hose is about 70 lbs. If the hose is 1/2” ID, the weight of water is 280 lbs. The weight of the hose, however, would need to be added. Putting other pumps along the way would obviously cause the weight to go up considerably, and would put a lot of stress on the hose.
Or the temperature would freeze it solid somewhere along the way.
Not to make it harder for you to sleep but even if all works as “planned” it might make a good terrorist opportunity to inject some bio agent over, say, half the world ... Nite. Nite. Don’t let the bio bugs bite. ;-)
That sucks............or not......
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