New NASA Balloon Successfully Flight-Tested Over Antarctica
NASA and the National Science Foundation have successfully launched and demonstrated a newly designed super pressure balloon prototype that may enable a new era of high-altitude scientific research. The super-pressure balloon ultimately will carry large scientific experiments to the brink of space for 100 days or more.
This seven-million-cubic-foot super-pressure balloon is the largest single-cell, super-pressure, fully-sealed balloon ever flown. When development ends, NASA will have a 22 million-cubic-foot balloon that can carry a one-ton instrument to an altitude of more than 110,000 feet, which is three to four times higher than passenger planes fly.
“This flight test is a very important step forward in building a new capability for scientific ballooning based on sound engineering and operational development,” said W. Vernon Jones, senior scientist for suborbital research at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The team has further work to do to enable the super pressure balloon to lift a one-ton instrument to a float altitude of 110,000 feet, but the team has demonstrated they are on the right path.”
Ultra-long duration missions using the super pressure balloon cost considerably less than a satellite and the scientific instruments flown can be retrieved and launched again, making them ideal very-high altitude research platforms.
The test flight was launched Dec. 28, 2008, from McMurdo Station, which is the National Science Foundation’s logistics hub in Antarctica. The balloon reached a float altitude of more than 111,000 feet and continues to maintain it in its 11th day of flight. The flight tested the durability and functionality of the scientific balloon’s unique pumpkin-shaped design and novel material. The material is a special lightweight polyethylene film, about the thickness of ordinary plastic food wrap.
“Our balloon development team is very proud of the tremendous success of the test flight and is focused on continued development of this new capability to fly balloons for months at a time in support of scientific investigations,” said David Pierce, chief of the Balloon Program Office at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va. “The test flight has demonstrated that 100 day flights of large, heavy payloads is a realistic goal.”
In addition to the super pressure test flight, two additional long-duration balloons have been launched from McMurdo during the 2008-2009 campaign. The University of Hawaii Manoa’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna launched Dec. 21, 2008, and is still aloft. Its radio telescope is searching for indirect evidence of extremely high-energy neutrino particles possibly coming from outside our Milky Way galaxy.
The University of Maryland’s Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass, or CREAM IV, experiment launched Dec. 19, 2008, and landed Jan. 6, 2009. The CREAM investigation was used to directly measure high energy cosmic-ray particles arriving at Earth after originating from distant supernova explosions elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy.
The super-pressure balloon was highlighted in the National Research Council’s decadal survey “Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium,” and will play an important role in providing inexpensive access to the near-space environment for science and technology.
NASA and the National Science Foundation conduct an annual scientific balloon campaign during the Antarctic summer. The National Science Foundation manages the U.S. Antarctic Program and provides logistic support for all U.S. scientific operations in Antarctica.
The Wallops Flight Facility is a division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Wallops manages NASA’s scientific balloon program for the Science Mission Directorate. Launch operations are conducted by the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility of Palestine, Texas, which is managed for NASA by the Physical Science Laboratory of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
Track the balloons online at: http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice0809.htm
For information about the NASA balloon program visit: http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code820
Short URL: http://chandadavis.net/?p=1064
1) NASA has developed a super pressure balloon that will fly 3 or 4 times higher than planes.
2) The balloon was tested over Antarctica.
3) In the future they hope to lift a one ton instrument to 110,000 feet.
4) Super pressure balloons are cheaperthan satellites and instruments can be retrieved.
5) Two other balloons were launched from McMurdo Station during 2008-2009.
NASA has successfuly launched a super pressure balloon prototype.
The super pressure balloon is seven million cubic feet long.
The first test was in Dec. 28,2008.
The super pressure balloon was tested in antarctica.
It can also fly up to 3 or 4 times higher than a regular plane.
1. NASA successfully launched a super presure baloon
2.This was tested over antartic.
3.This baloon is seven million cubic feet.
4.There was two other baloons launched during 2008-2009.
5. The fist of these flights was on December 28,2008.
Article Summary
1. NASA and the National Science Foundation have launched a newly designed super pressure balloon .
2. The super-pressure balloon will carry scientific experiments to the edge of space for 100 days or more.
3. The seven-million-cubic-foot balloon is the largest single-cell, super-pressure, fully-sealed balloon ever flown.
4. Missions using the super pressure balloon cost less than a satellite and the scientific instruments flown can be retrieved and launched again, making them ideal very-high altitude research platforms.
5. NASA and the National Science Foundation conduct an annual scientific balloon campaign during the artic summer .
1.)NASA flew a ballon over Antarctica.
2.)It was a newly designed ballon.
3.)It was 7 million cubic feet.
4.)They hope to carry 1 ton experments up in the air one day.
5.)The ballon can fly higher than planes.
1 The super-pressure balloon ultimately will carry large scientific experiments to the brink of space for 100 days or more.
2 It was a newly designed ballon.
3 It was 7 million cubic feet.
4 They hope to carry 1 ton experments up in the air one day.
5 The ballon can fly higher than planes.
1.NASA launched a super pressure balloon prototype.
2.The balloon prototype flew over antartica
3.The balloon prototype what seven million cubic feet.
4.The first flight of the balloon prototype was on December 28,2008
5.Then 2 more balloons were launched in 2008-2009
1. This article is one how the NASA air ballon successfully mad eit over Antartica.
2. The scientist still have to test the ballon for 100 days.
3. The test flight was launched December 28, 2008, from McMurdo Station.
4. This super-pressure ballon is seven-million-cubic-feet.
5. The Science team still has to do work to get the ballon to hold one-ton instrumentto float 110,000 feet high.
1.New NASA balloon has had its flight test. The test was succesfull. The balloon flew over Antartica.
2.NASA & the National Science Foundation have sucessfully designed super pressure ballon.
3. The invention of this ballon may start a new time period of high-altiude of scientific reasearch.
4. The awesome ballon will carry large scientific experiments to the brink for 100 days or more.
5. The scientist that made the ballon are very happy & glad that the ballon’s test flight was succesful. The scientist said that this test flight was very important.
1. NASA and the National Science Foundation have launched a newly designed super pressure balloon .
2. The super-pressure balloon will carry scientific experiments to the edge of space for 100 days or more.
3. The seven-million-cubic-foot balloon is the largest single-cell, super-pressure, fully-sealed balloon ever flown.
4. The test flight was launched Dec. 28, 2008, from McMurdo Station, which is the National Science Foundation’s logistics hub in Antarctica.
5. The balloon reached a float altitude of more than 111,000 feet and continues to maintain it in its 11th day of flight.