World View: stratospheric tourism in an air (helium) balloon

An interesting project was proposed by Paragon , a company that manufactures equipment for the ISS. The project, called World View, involves raising "tourists" to a height of 30 kilometers above the Earth in a sealed capsule that is attached to a large balloon filled with helium (which is constantly heated).

This capsule can accommodate eight passengers who can enjoy the view of their planet from a great height, almost from space. Presumably, the views will be amazing, such a flight will not be much less than in terms of entertainment planned (in the near future) flights of private space carriers, bringing the space provided to tourists in orbit.
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Tourists who climb into the stratosphere can enjoy views of the Earth from a great height for 6 hours. At the same time, they will be able to move around the capsule without any problems. But the "space" tourists, firstly, will be limited in their actions, and secondly, there will be much less time in space.

Of course, on such a ball it will not be possible to achieve a state of weightlessness, so that experiencing what Virgin Galactic space tourists will experience (although in their case it will be very short), it will not fully work. But a ticket for a flight in a balloon capsule costs much less than in the case of a flight on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft. So, for a balloon tourist a ticket will cost 75 thousand dollars (while a flight into space with Virgin Galactic will cost 250 thousand US dollars).

Now Paragon is conducting equipment tests and is also preparing a legal basis for its new activities. All this will be completed by 2016, when the project will be available to everyone. Rather, not everyone, but only those who will be willing to pay 75 thousand dollars for a flight to a height of 30 kilometers.

Via dvice