Sizing of Stratospheric Airships for Space Based Applications

摘要: This paper will describe a methodology that can arrive at the baseline specifications of a stratospheric airship, given the performance and operational requirements like payload mass, payload power, mission speed, geographical location, and altitude of deployment. Results obtained using this sizing methodology for some typical operating requirements for stratospheric airships will also be presented. Sizing of a stratospheric airship for various envelope profiles will be carried out to identify which ones are more suitable for different applications. The sensitivity of the airship size and all up weight to some key input parameters will also be brought out.