Editing Jean Piccard (section)

==Stratosphere flight==
[[File:Jean-Piccard-from video.png|thumb|left|alt=Waist high portrait of male in his forties, quite poor quality, taken before sunrise, wearing a light colored suit. Man in uniform to his right, onlooker at right.|Piccard signing autographs at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair]]
Piccard was the co-pilot for his wife Jeannette on the third and final voyage of the ''Century of Progress''. The largest balloon in the world was conceived for him to fly at the [[Century of Progress|World's Fair]] in 1933 but was flown there by US Navy pilots who were licensed.<ref name=Navy>{{cite web| author= Unknown author| title= To Leave the Earth| publisher= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| date= n.d.| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-04.PDF| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20010629190957/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-04.PDF| url-status= dead| archive-date= June 29, 2001| accessdate= 2007-01-26}}</ref> After this flight he created the liquid oxygen converter when the liquid failed to vaporize on descent after the cabin doors were open.<ref name=CFC>{{cite web| author= US Centennial of Flight Commission| title= Jean Piccard| year= 2003| url= http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Jean_Piccard/DI65.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060923165719/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Jean_Piccard/DI65.htm| archivedate= 2006-09-23}}</ref> Piccard developed a frost-free window, that was used on this flight and later by the Navy and Air Force in the [[B-24 Liberator]] or [[B-26 Marauder]]. He used [[blasting cap]]s and [[trinitrotoluene|TNT]] for releasing the balloon at launch and for remote release of external ballast from inside the sealed cabin. This was the first use of [[pyrotechnics]] for remote-controlled actuating devices in [[aircraft]], an unpopular, revolutionary idea at the time. Later his student [[Robert R. Gilruth]], who became the director of the [[Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center|NASA Manned Spacecraft Center]], approved and used them in [[spacecraft]].<ref name=DLP>{{cite web| author= Piccard, Don| title= Balloon Information Resources: The Beginning| year= 2005| url= http://www.mesasphere.com/Balloon%20Information%20Resources.htm| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130927020109/http://www.mesasphere.com/Balloon%20Information%20Resources.htm| url-status= usurped| archive-date= September 27, 2013| accessdate= 2007-01-28}}</ref><ref name=Kraft>{{cite web| author= Kraft, Christopher Jr.| title= Robert R. Gilruth in ''Biographical Memoirs'' V.84 92-111| publisher= National Academy of Sciences| year= 2004| url= http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10992&page=92| accessdate= 2007-01-30}}</ref>

The [http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2860037/700599 July 21st, 1952 issue of The Canberra Times] newspaper printed an incorrect front-page article in which Piccard claimed it would be possible for humans to fly to Mars with balloons as early as 1954, if anyone was willing to invest $250,000. Piccard had claimed he would study the light from Mars through a spectroscope to try to find evidence of oxygen and water at a high altitude to ensure his measurements were as precise as possible.