using lighter than air ships to go into space.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

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To achieve orbital flight, the craft would require a spaceworthy propulsion system � something more substantial than helium and propellers. Powell would turn to the type of continuous-thrust ion propulsion system used on NASA's Deep Space 1 and the European Space Agency's SMART 1 moon probe. Based on computer simulations with different configurations, he contends that such engines could drive the mega-balloon to orbit in three to nine days.

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this is what the piece of paper says near the bottom of the text.
can this really work and be a new way to go into space??

Read the whole storie its a great piece of text ...and look to next months test...

The Canadian X-Prize team The Da-Vinci Project is using a concept simillar to this except it look more like a weather baloon. They plan on lifting their rocket up to 100,000 ft and blasting off from there. Very promising technology as well as a fuel saver.