Proezas de Piccard (I): above all mists

2010/11/01 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Aeronautika
• Fisika
• Biografiak
• Historia

The beauty of that sky was the most exciting thing he ever saw. It was dark blue, or purple, almost black. And on the horizon, the border between the troposphere and the stratosphere, as drawn with... Auguste Piccard was at 15,600 meters, enclosed in an aluminium sphere hung from a giant globe.

The Swiss physicist wanted to investigate cosmic rays and thought the best way to do so was to climb the stratosphere. He decided to climb the globe. To survive at low stratospheric pressure, it would make a cabin that would not allow the air to leave, keeping a normal atmosphere inside. All the specialists of the time told him that it was impossible to do so. "But the only excuse they could put was that it had never been done so," says Piccard in his book Earth, sky, and sea. "How many times have I heard this kind of reasoning!"

Piccard designed a spherical cabin. It was two meters in diameter and a 3.5 mm aluminum wall. Inside there were two people and enough space to carry all the necessary equipment, with eight round windows for observation. He also designed the globe that would climb the sphere to the stratosphere, which was huge. As a ballast, lead pellets would be used. The pellets should be very small in order not to harm in case of fall. To be completely convinced, Piccard was installed under a large fireplace at the University of Brussels, from 50 meters high to the launch of a lot of pellets.

They left Augsburg. On the one hand, because the balloon was made there and, on the other, because it was far from the sea. After several months of waiting for the best conditions, finally, on May 26, 1931, the weather forecast was good. That night the stratospheric balloon was inflated by hydrogen. But in the early morning the wind began and they put one more string to hold the balloon (without Piccard knowing it). The wind was getting stronger and stronger. However, Piccard and his partner Paul Kipfer entered the cabin.

"A fireplace is passing under us! ", Kipfer suddenly said. And they realized that they released the balloon without giving the agreed signal. They were going up at full speed.

As they went up, Piccard discovered that the insulator of one of the gauges crossing the cockpit wall was broken: "the air, our precious air, was fleeing, whistling through the hole." Fortunately, Piccard had prepared a mixture of cotton and vaseline in the hope of covering with it the pasta in case of leakage. It was not easy, but as the pasta was being placed, the txistu was silenced. "I have never appreciated the silence so much," Piccard recalled.

By then they were already in two-thirds of normal pressure. Piccard took the liquid oxygen that led to the reserve and poured it into the ground. When it evaporated, it raised the pressure.

At four and twenty-five in the morning, at 28 minutes of their departure, they were at 15.500 meters from the stratosphere. They got it! But after a while they realized they had a problem: The rope that controlled the exhaust valve of the balloon was not working! The other string added at the time of departure was complicated with it. Without opening the valve they could not make the balloon go down. They depended on the external conditions: until the afternoon -- until the cooling, allegia--- they did not start to go down. But where were they by then? They were heading directly towards the Adriatic. What if they fell into the sea?

However, they threw a little ballast. They wanted to continue with the research program, so they had to reach a point where the pressure was 10 times lower than at sea level. And also. Subsequently, the valve was reopened until the rope was broken. "We were there, captive of the stratosphere," Piccard wrote.

They continued with data collection of cosmic rays and other measurements. Meanwhile, the temperature was increasing. At first they passed cold. In fact, they left the earth before dawn. Less bad that they crossed at great speed the zone located between the 50 and the 75 °C under zero. An ice sheet covered the cabin inside: "It looked like we were inside a glass drop." Fortunately the sun went out soon. In the stratosphere aluminum began to warm up and ice fell: "The snow began in our cabin." The temperature continued to grow: "20ºC was very nice. 30ºC, sustainable. But it was too much 38ºC! ".

They drowned with thirst. Piccard had requested that he introduce two large bottles of water into the cabin, but only put a small one. Fortunately, Kipfer found a fountain: on the wall of the cabin there was a small stream formed by condensed water. "It wasn't much, but it was enough to wet the tongue from time to time."

In the end, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the balloon began to go down. Very slowly. Four, five, six. They crossed the Alps. When the sun was set, the descent was faster. At eight o'clock were 12,000 meters away. The stratosphere was abandoned. They were going faster and faster. In 4,500 meters, Kipfer said they had the same pressure on the outside and inside. They opened the door of the cabin and took the head out; after seventeen hours of stay inside, they needed a little air. "Upon us, the starry sky. Below, high mountains, snow and rock", described Piccard.

They did not know how the landing was going to be and, in case, made helmets to protect the head with two baskets and cushions. They took land in 2,600 meters. In some mountain of Switzerland or Austria, or perhaps in Italy. "It would have been a wonderful place had it not been so cold! ", says Piccard in his book. "I fell asleep wrapped in the fabric of the globe, but from time to time I woke up because the sound of a few drops of water from the area was mixed with the txistu of the air that escaped from the cabin."

In Switzerland and Brussels they warmly received the two heroes. They were the first two people who were in the stratosphere. It was never so high: 15.781 m.

Piccard himself would break the mark the following year. On August 18, 1932, together with Max Cosyns, it reached 16,000 meters. In this case everything was perfect.

Piccard opened a new path. Others also started making stratospheric balloons: three in the US, two in Russia, one in Poland... all larger than Piccard. Meanwhile, Piccard left the sky and headed towards the bottom of the sea. There also had to explore...