Academic literature on the topic 'Suborbital balloon'

ABSTRACTLaunching orbital and suborbital rockets from a high altitude is beneficial because of e.g. nozzle optimisation and reduced drag. Aircraft and gas balloons have been used for the purpose. Here we present a concept where a balloon is filled with pure water vapour on ground so that it rises to the launch altitude. The system resembles a gas balloon because no onboard energy source is carried, and no hard objects fall down. We simulate the ascent behaviour of the balloon. In the baseline simulation, we consider a 10 tonne rocket lifted to an altitude of 18 km.We model the trajectory of the balloon by taking into account steam adiabatic cooling, surface cooling, water condensation and balloon aerodynamic drag. The required steam mass proves to be only 1.4 times the mass of the rocket stage, and the ascent time is around 10 minutes. For small payloads, surface cooling increases the relative amount of steam needed, unless insulation is applied to the balloon skin. The ground-filled steam balloon seems to be an attractive and sustainable method of lifting payloads such as rockets into high altitude.

The ExaVolt Antenna (EVA) is the next generation balloon-borne ultra-high energy (UHE) particle observatory under development for NASA’s suborbital super-pressure balloon program in Antarctica. Unlike a typical mission where the balloon lifts a gondola that carries the primary scientific instrument, the EVA mission is a first-of-its-kind in that the balloon itself is part of the science instrument. Specifically, a toroidal RF reflector is mounted onto the outside surface of a superpressure balloon (SPB) and a feed antenna is suspended inside the balloon, creating a high-gain antenna system with a synoptic view of the Antarctic ice sheet. The EVA mission presents a number of technical challenges. For example, can a stowed feed antenna be inserted through an opening in the top-plate? Can the feed antenna be deployed during the ascent? Once float altitude is achieved, how might small shape changes in the balloon shape affect the antenna performance over the life of the EVA mission? The EVA team utilized a combination of testing with a 1/20-scale physical model, mathematical modeling and numerical simulations to probe these and related questions. While the problems are challenging, they are solvable with current technology and expertise. Experiments with a 1/20-scale EVA physical model outline a pathway for inserting a stowed feed into a SPB. Analysis indicates the EVA system will ascend, deploy and assume a stable configuration at float altitude. Nominal shape changes in an Antarctic SPB are sufficiently small to allow the use of the surface of the balloon as a high-gain reflector.

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol) was a suborbital experiment designed to map magnetic fields in order to study their role in star formation processes. BLASTPol made detailed polarization maps of a number of molecular clouds during its successful flights from Antarctica in 2010 and 2012. We present the next-generation BLASTPol instrument (BLAST-TNG) that will build off the success of the previous experiment and continue its role as a unique instrument and a test bed for new technologies. With a 16-fold increase in mapping speed, BLAST-TNG will make larger and deeper maps. Major improvements include a 2.5-m carbon fiber mirror that is 40% wider than the BLASTPol mirror and ~3000 polarization sensitive detectors. BLAST-TNG will observe in three bands at 250, 350, and 500 μm. The telescope will serve as a pathfinder project for microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) technology, as applied to feedhorn-coupled submillimeter detector arrays. The liquid helium cooled cryostat will have a 28-day hold time and will utilize a closed-cycle 3 He refrigerator to cool the detector arrays to 270 mK. This will enable a detailed mapping of more targets with higher polarization resolution than any other submillimeter experiment to date. BLAST-TNG will also be the first balloon-borne telescope to offer shared risk observing time to the community. This paper outlines the motivation for the project and the instrumental design.

Results from the IUE satellite, summarized in the section which follows this one, continue to dominate the literature for research topics which rely on observations in the ultraviolet. This trend may be accentuated in the near future, as we experience the natural attrition of papers based on results from previous major missions which are no longer operating, such as TD-1, Copernicus, ANS and BUSS. The Challenger accident on January 28, 1986 abruptly halted flights of new orbital facilities which depend on the Space Shuttle and has created long and somewhat indefinite postponements in the eventual manifesting of payloads ranging in size from simple experiments in Getaway Special (GAS) and Spartan carriers, to telescopes of intermediate size on Spacelab (such as those which were to fly on the Astro mission in March 1986) to the Hubble Space Telescope. Suborbital missions, i.e., sounding-rockets and balloons, will probably dominate the extra-IUE uv astronomy scene until there is a re-establishment of a vigorous launch schedule for expendable vehicles and/or the Space Shuttle.

abstract: The development of new Ultra-Violet/Visible/IR range (UV/Vis/IR) astronomical instrumentation that use novel approaches for imaging and increase the accessibility of observing time for more research groups is essential for rapid innovation within the community. Unique focal planes that are rapid-prototyped, low cost, and provide high resolution are key. In this dissertation the emergent designs of three unique focal planes are discussed. These focal planes were each designed for a different astronomical platform: suborbital balloon, suborbital rocket, and ground-based observatory. The balloon-based payload is a hexapod-actuated focal plane that uses tip-tilt motion to increase angular resolution through the removal of jitter – known as the HExapod Resolution-Enhancement SYstem (HERESY), the suborbital rocket imaging payload is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) delta-doped charge-coupled device (CCD) packaged to survive the rigors of launch and image far-ultra-violet (FUV) spectra, and the ground-based observatory payload is a star centroid tracking modification to the balloon version of HERESY for the tip-tilt correction of atmospheric turbulence. The design, construction, verification, and validation of each focal plane payload is discussed in detail. For HERESY’s balloon implementation, pointing error data from the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory (STO) Antarctic balloon mission was used to form an experimental lab test setup to demonstrate the hexapod can eliminate jitter in flight-like conditions. For the suborbital rocket focal plane, a harsh set of unit-level tests to ensure the payload could survive launch and space conditions, as well as the characterization and optimization of the JPL detector, are detailed. Finally, a modification of co-mounting a fast-read detector to the HERESY focal plane, for use on ground-based observatories, intended to reduce atmospherically induced tip-tilt error through the centroid tracking of bright natural guidestars, is described.
Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation Exploration Systems Design 2019