Wow, the commenting system here is quite lame. Only 500 characters. That limits what you can say quite a bit. Guess they really mean remark not comment. Whatever ... :-)
It ascends to its max altitude and this us under burst altitude so it simply floats there. The balloon is stressed by repeated day night temperature extremes which weaken the envelop and eventually after a day or two or three, it gets stressed to burst at a lower altitude. UV has an effect on the integrity of latex as well.
As a somewhat unlikely event, you can have a pinhole leak in one of these latex envelopes and actually not burst the balloon slowly loses helium, it ascends and it's rate of ascent tapers off until it goes into a very slow descent. Also, if you are quite skilled you can fill the balloon with just barely enough helium to get it off the ground and that will sometimes result in a floater.
@nullachtEL Good point. The camera here is taking photos every x seconds, I think for this flight it was programmed for every 30, but I could be mistaken. Regardless, the chances of catching the burst or even being close to the debris cloud of balloon shards when a photo happens is not too likely. Folks who take video will naturally catch the burst in all its glorious beauty.
oh ok thy for you explanation
nullachtEL 1 month ago
Wow, the commenting system here is quite lame. Only 500 characters. That limits what you can say quite a bit. Guess they really mean remark not comment. Whatever ... :-)
Richard1984 1 month ago
It ascends to its max altitude and this us under burst altitude so it simply floats there. The balloon is stressed by repeated day night temperature extremes which weaken the envelop and eventually after a day or two or three, it gets stressed to burst at a lower altitude. UV has an effect on the integrity of latex as well.
Richard1984 1 month ago
As a somewhat unlikely event, you can have a pinhole leak in one of these latex envelopes and actually not burst the balloon slowly loses helium, it ascends and it's rate of ascent tapers off until it goes into a very slow descent. Also, if you are quite skilled you can fill the balloon with just barely enough helium to get it off the ground and that will sometimes result in a floater.
Richard1984 1 month ago
and expand and no pop?
nullachtEL 1 month ago
@nullachtEL Good point. The camera here is taking photos every x seconds, I think for this flight it was programmed for every 30, but I could be mistaken. Regardless, the chances of catching the burst or even being close to the debris cloud of balloon shards when a photo happens is not too likely. Folks who take video will naturally catch the burst in all its glorious beauty.
Richard1984 1 month ago