Stratospheric balloon dynamics predictions for robust ascent phase payload thermal analysis

Abstract

Stratospheric balloons are platforms with great relevance in space missions to reach scientific observations. The payload thermal analyses of such missions are usually focused on the float phase. However, during the ascent phase, the coolest temperatures of the entire mission may be reached, mainly due to the convective cooling in the tropopause. This can be explained by the combination of relative wind speed and the harsh thermal environment. The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of the thermal environment on the relative wind speed to determine the worst-case thermal analysis. Therefore, in order to perform a robust payload thermal during the ascent phase, the uncertainty in the thermal environment and the relative velocity must be evaluated. The former are reduced by defining the thermal environment based on real-data. The latter are reduced by evaluating the parameters involved in the ascent rate. For this purpose, a dynamic model has been developed to characterise the ascent rate and the horizontal relative velocity of the balloon-borne system. This tool has been validated with flight data from the REXUS/BEXUS programme, with the BEXUS missions launched from Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden from 2014 to 2018. The thermal analysis performed shows a temperature difference greater than 10 °C depending on the thermal worst-case selection. The work here presented reduces the uncertainties of the stratospheric payloads ascent phase thermal analysis.