# 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.

## Key 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.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1903.05171