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The BU60-1 balloon attained an altitude of 53.0 km (32.9 mi; 173,900 ft).

Weather permitting, would a series of climbable balloons in a chain be able to be linked from the ground to that height of 53 km?

To gain altitude each balloon must be gradually bigger.
At the bottom balloons would be made of more durable material.

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I have found no record of this being done with higher tech weather balloons.

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  • $\begingroup$ What is "BU60-1 Balloon attained 53.0 km (32.9 mi; 173,900 ft)"? Is this noting an article somewhere proposing such an idea, or a link to somewhere this balloon chaining was done? Links would be helpful. If not, why in the world 53 km specifically??? $\endgroup$
    – JeopardyTempest
    Commented May 23, 2018 at 21:31
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    $\begingroup$ @JeopardyTempest I suspect that part of the question is from Wikipedia. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Klaus
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 1:31

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It would certainly be possible to construct a series of balloons that reached neutral buoyancy at different altitudes, so in that sense the answer is "yes".

I'm not sure whether there's necessarily any correlation between balloon size and altitude, except in that a given balloon will expand as it rises.

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I assume you would like a chain of balloons going into space.

Our current balloon material technology has examples (see below) from the surface up to 53km and then for space to go 100km and beyond. The range where R&D of balloon materials would be needed is from 53km to 100km.

  • Toy balloons can reach 10km.
  • The highest hot-air-balloon flight reached 21km.
  • For a manned helium balloon, the highest is 41km.
  • A weather balloon, as you indicated has reached 53.0 km.
  • The Karman Line between our atmosphere and space is at 100km.
  • NASA’s Project Echo reached 1,519 to 1,687 km with Echo 1A.

Now that said, there would be other problems to consider besides balloon materials. =)

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    $\begingroup$ very nice answer $\endgroup$
    – Muze
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 4:13

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