[5][6] The 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.

In 1935 and 1936, to reduce weight and thus enabling a balloon to reach higher altitudes, plastic balloon construction began independently by Max Cosyns in Belgium, Erich Regener in Germany, and Thomas H. Johnson and Jean Piccard, then at the Franklin Institute's Bartol Research Foundation in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

The balloon was unmanned, 25 feet (7.6 meters) wide, and made of tapered 33-foot (10-meter) gores and one-inch (2.54-cm) 3M Scotch transparent tape.

Jean Barnhill, Harold Larson and Lloyd Schumacher cut the gores that fit together like an "orange peel."

In a letter to Robert Gray of the Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. later published in Time magazine, Piccard describes how he broke balloons with a hunting knife and revolver to control his descent.

[15] In February 1946 with Otto C. Winzen, Jean Piccard proposed manned flight to the US Navy using clustered balloons made of thin plastic.