Dave: With 50K shares of GTEM, I think you are standing on the threashold of becoming a multi-millionaire.
Insofar as a translucient Strat is concerned, I never considered it. The reason being is that I wanted to take advantage of any superheat I could get from the sun. The Strat would be stationed at 65,000 feet, but would gain some altitude during the day from heat gathered from the sun. At night, it would lose a little altitude when the helium condenses. Keeping the solar panels on the exterior of the hull would aid in superheating during daylight hours. Gas cells would have heaters inside to stabilize cell temperatures during extremes.
The Strat needs to conserve energy as well as generate its' power from the sun. Superheat is energy that can be used if properly contained. That is the reason for the aluminized skin barrier. It acts somewhat like a thermos bottle by keeping some heat trapped inside the vehicle.
Like greed, heat is good!
No man should be considered totally useless....because he can always serve as a bad example.
