>>13688913I don't know what part of this you want examined. Increased height will grant greater gravitational potential at the cost of additional material; extremely large structure will have to be exponentially concerned about damage/instability from forces like wind and earthquakes. Increased area will grant greater working mass. There is probably a relationship between the tower, balloon, and tarp that resembles a catenary in the absence of rain that will eat away at your theoretical effective area per area of tarp material used. You'd also be limited on the possible size of the tarps and balloon to properly support dynamic loads from the rain water. Like anon said,
>>13688976 you'll need to keep refueling the balloons, and this could probably be better addressed with static members will less energy "leakage". I wonder what could be said for the energy not lost to air resistance from the rain drops falling through the air, but having laminar flow down the pipe; I would assume it is insignificant, but I'm just eating lunch, not going to bother with it.
