Vacuum balloon -- a 350-year-old dream

TL;DR

This paper proposes a feasible design for a vacuum balloon using a rigid spherical sandwich shell with commercially available materials, demonstrating its potential to be both lightweight and strong enough to withstand atmospheric pressure.

Contribution

It introduces a novel vacuum balloon design with a specific sandwich shell structure and validates its structural integrity through finite element analysis.

Findings

Buckling can be prevented in the proposed structure

The design can withstand atmospheric pressure

Manufacturing approaches are discussed

Abstract

The centuries-old idea of a lighter-than-air vacuum balloon has not materialized yet as such structure needs to be both light enough to float in the air and strong enough to withstand atmospheric pressure. We propose a design of a rigid spherical sandwich shell and demonstrate that it can satisfy these stringent conditions with commercially available materials, such as boron carbide ceramic and aluminum alloy honeycomb. A finite element analysis was employed to demonstrate that buckling can be prevented in the proposed structure. Also discussed are other modes of failure and approach to manufacturing.