do they reach a time and burst or do they keep floating in spacedo they reach a time and burst or do they keep floating in space?
In: 1
Not so much time as they reach an altitude limit and burst. At higher altitudes with less atmospheric pressure the gas inside expands, and at some point up there they pop.
And yes this does mean that the balloon and electronics falls back to ground as trash in some random spot.
That being said there are some long duration balloon flights where the balloon can control its altitude by venting gas. These they can try and time so that it falls back down at a reasonable spot to be recovered. Sending people out for recovery is pretty expensive though.
www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-02/giant-weather-balloon-shatters-flight-records-while-taking-cosmic-beating/
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