Ballon Bloon de la société Zero2Infinity

[alexandreVBCI]

Privatized space travel is all the rage right now, and with at least one commercial space port coming online soon, there is likely to be a rush of well-to-doers looking to be launched into space. But if airline travel has a big footprint, space travel has an even greater footprint. To solve that conundrum, Barcelona-based Zero2Infinity has proposed a far more environmentally sound way to get to space - via helium balloon. The Bloon Balloon is a specially crafted pod that is lifted into near space without any propellants, noise or emissions. So far the company has successfully tested scaled prototypes to altitudes up to 33km, and they expects to perform their first human test flight sometime in 2012.

http://inhabitat.com/bloon-zero2infinity-proposes-eco-friendly-near-space-travel-with-a-helium-filled-balloon/

[BPCs]

Airship to orbit ?

JP Aerospace describes the Tandem as a "workhorse vehicle" for its Airship to Orbit program, under which it hopes to build manned hybrid airships that carry passengers and cargo to 140,000ft to dock with a bouyant suborbital space station. Lauched from the permanently stationed and crewed station, a large airship would then use bouyancy to climb to 200,000ft, where electric propulsion would take over and lift it into orbit over several days.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/aviation_week/on_space_and_technology/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=a68cb417-3364-4fbf-a9dd-4feda680ec9c&plckPostId=Blog%3aa68cb417-3364-4fbf-a9dd-4feda680ec9cPost%3a8ca9eeab-7462-484e-b722-c5f0df4f496f&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest