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A comment on U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Parent comment
Looking the pictures this payload was at least 250 kg ( 551 lbs ).
The typical calculation is a liter of helium would have a lifting force of one gram.
So we need 250000 liters of helium meaning a sphere of 250 cubic meters.
So for a volume of a sphere at V = (4/3)πr3, we get the radius at r = (3V / 4π)1/3. Aprox 39 meters ( 128 feet ).
So I am going to put the diameter of this thing at 80 to 90 meters ( 262 to 295 feet ). Quite large I would say....
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Looking the pictures this payload was at least 250 kg ( 551 lbs ).
The typical calculation is a liter of helium would have a lifting force of one gram.
So we need 250000 liters of helium meaning a sphere of 250 cubic meters.
So for a volume of a sphere at V = (4/3)πr3, we get the radius at r = (3V / 4π)1/3. Aprox 39 meters ( 128 feet ).
So I am going to put the diameter of this thing at 80 to 90 meters ( 262 to 295 feet ). Quite large I would say....