High Altitude Ballooning Research Articles

Predicting high-altitude vehicle launch opportunities usingmachine learning: a preliminary investigation

High-altitude ballooning, along with other aerospace endeavors, requires extensive preplanning and preparation for vehicle launching. In ballooning specifically, weather conditions are especially effective and driving whether or nota launch can occur. As most flights must be shaped around the flight path, both for safety and recovery reasons,it is imperative that any acceptable flight path and day may be considered. The goal of this project is to minimize, using machine learning, the complexity and manpower requirements for determining if a launch can occur.

Predicting high-altitude vehicle launch opportunities usingmachine learning: a preliminary investigation

High-altitude ballooning, along with other aerospace endeavors, requires extensive preplanning and preparation forvehicle launching. In ballooning specifically, weather conditions are especially effective and driving whether or nota launch can occur. As most flights must be shaped around the flight path, both for safety and recovery reasons,it is imperative that any acceptable flight path and day may be considered. The goal of this project is to minimize,using machine learning, the complexity and manpower requirements for determining if a launch can occur.

Science, Technology and Systems Engineering Educational Activities with Stratospheric Balloons

Abstract In 2021, the Space Systems Laboratory of the University of Pisa (UniPi) started a student-oriented high-altitude ballooning programme intended to provide an opportunity for hands-on experience in support of the teaching of scientific and technical courses. The programme provides mentoring on scientific, technical and management issues, along with financial support and assistance with integration and launch on a sounding balloon platform. The goal is to conduct flying experiments in the stratosphere, retrieve them after landing and process the results; by doing so, the students experience all phases of a scientific mission project, from conceptual design to realisation, operations and post-flight analysis. Following a call for proposal open to all students of the UniPi across all study areas, three experiments were selected featuring multidisciplinary teams. This paper summarises the features of the programme’s first edition and presents the main lessons learned.

Preparing for space: Increasing technical readiness of low-cost high-performance remote sensing using high-altitude ballooning

Two widely available, small size, weight and power camera systems were flown above 97 % of Earth’s atmosphere and showed utility in single filter vegetation and soil analysis in a space analogue environment. The experiment was conducted as a low-cost verification and test analogue to flying on vastly more expensive low Earth orbit missions. Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used as the metric by which performance was analysed for ground calibration testing, low and near-space altitude remote sensing. Ground calibration testing with a laboratory-grade spectrometer revealed that both cameras were able to return consistent NDVI results, and high-altitude balloon flight allowed similar data capture from an environment similar to space. Although compressed captured imagery had been processed using gamma correction and pre-image processing, these were able to be corrected provided that access to radiometrically-calibrated data was available. The two hobbyist cameras were shown to return scientifically useful results, demonstrating performance, and additionally their utility for citizen science applications in the near-space environment.

Active Heading Control Platform for Instruments Flown on High Altitude Balloons

Experiments flown on high-altitude balloons are typically free to spin without any control or information collected on the payload orientation during flight, limiting the scope of experiments that can be performed. Projects that include targeting (i.e. imaging the 2017 solar eclipse) have at best a random chance of succeeding, while video footage is often hard to watch due to high payload rotation rates. While passive stabilization reduces the rotation rate, active pointing control is necessary for continuous target acquisition. Here we discuss a project built by students at Wright College called the Controlled Heading Automation Device (CHAD) that actively controls the heading of other instruments (i.e. cameras) and has been proven to work in flight. This project is open-source, 3D printable, made from cheap DIY electronics, and has been made available online (http://physi.cz/chad) so the high-altitude ballooning community can create, use, and adapt it to their own projects. We show how to create an attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) that can be used to continuously record payload orientation, which can supplement experiments where pointing information is needed. We then show how to have CHAD use the AHRS to automatically control the heading of other instruments in real-time without any other inputs.

High Altitude Ballooning as an Atmospheric Sounding System in the Pre-Flight Procedures of ILR-33 Amber

Abstract The paper presents research on the near real-time atmospheric sounding system. The main objective of the research was the development and testing of the weather sounding system based on a weather balloon. The system contains a redundant system of radiosondes, a lifting platform containing weather balloon and a holding system as well as ground station. Several tests of the system were performed in August and September 2019. Altitude, reliability, resistance to weather conditions and data convergence were tested. During tests, new procedures for such missions were developed. The final test was performed for the ILR-33 Amber Rocket as a part of pre-launch procedures. The test was successful and allowed to use acquired atmospheric data for further processing. Several post-tests conclusions were drawn. The altitude of sounding by a weather balloon depends mostly on weather conditions, the amount of gas pumped and the weight of a payload. The launching place and experience of the crew play an important role in the final success of the mission, as well.

Implementation of a Low-Cost Flight Tracking System for High-Altitude Ballooning

High-altitude balloons (HABs) are typically tracked via Global Positioning System (GPS) data sent via real-time radio-based communication systems such as the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS). Prefabricated APRS-compatible tracker modules have made it trivial to transmit GPS coordinates and payload parameters in compliance with the requisite AX.25 protocol. However, in order to receive and track APRS signals, conventional methodologies call for the use of a very-high-frequency (VHF) receiver to demodulate signals transmitted on the APRS frequencies, along with a compatible antenna and custom methodology for visualizing the HAB’s location on a map. The entire assembly is typically costly, cumbersome, and may require an Internet connection in order to obtain real-time visualization of the HAB’s location. This paper describes a low-cost, handheld system based on open-source software that operates independently of an Internet connection. The miniaturized system is suited to tracking done either from a vehicle or on foot, and it is cost-effective enough to be within the means of nearly any HAB user. The paper also discusses preliminary test results and further applications.

Evaluation of high-altitude balloons as a learning technology

The utility of high-altitude balloons as a learning technology to facilitate education in several disciplines is considered in this paper. The role that a high-altitude balloon can play as a learning technology is discussed and its utility in this role is considered. The need for a formal design framework for high-altitude ballooning is also discussed. A framework for the assessment of high-altitude ballooning in supporting an undergraduate-level course is evaluated and an assessment using this framework is conducted. The paper concludes with a discussion of techniques that can be used to broaden access to high-altitude ballooning in education.

High-Altitude Ballooning Student Research with Yeast and Plant Seeds

ABSTRACT Weather balloon flights provide affordable access to a space-like environment for student research. Typical flights last for 2.0-2.5 hours and reach altitudes of approximately 30 km. Payloads are exposed to intense cosmic and ultraviolet radiation, temperatures below -60° C, and atmospheric pressures of approximately 0.01 atmospheres. We report on simple laboratory procedures intended primarily for high school and middle school students in studying the effects of high-altitude balloon flights on yeast and plant seeds. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Raphanus sativus, and Brassica rapa were flown on two weather balloons inside and outside of payload containers to an altitude of approximately 27.5 km. After the flights the yeast cells were plated on YED media and incubated to assess survival and mutation rates. The seeds were planted to assess survival and variation in quantitative traits. We also discuss connections to disciplinary core ideas in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and provide an overview of further laboratory investigations designed to enhance students’ understanding of the effects of radiation on living organisms.

Active Learning in the Atmospheric Science Classroom and Beyond Through High-Altitude Ballooning

Active Learning in the Atmospheric Science Classroom and Beyond Through High-Altitude Ballooning

The first frontier: High altitude ballooning as a platform for student research experiences in science and engineering

High altitude balloon platforms are ideal for providing hands-on research experiences for students in physics, atmospheric science, engineering, and other aerospace-related disciplines. We describe a basic high altitude balloon platform that can be constructed and operated by undergraduate students. The existing HARBOR and BOREALIS programs are used to illustrate some possible science and engineering research projects that students can pursue as part of a high-altitude flight program.

Dispersion of Interstellar Polarization

The Wavelength Dependence of Polarization as observed in 32 stars, for which the Henry Draper numbers are given, is shown in figure 1. Details of some of these observations are presented in reference 1.The equipment is now being used with the new 154-cm Catalina reflector of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. The instrumental polarizations are nearly zero. The data processing and observing techniques have been further improved; the precision is mainly determined by statistics such that the internal probable error in the percentage polarization is ±0.03 percent (±0.0006 magnitude) for a half-hour observation per filter on objects brighter than about 7 magnitudes. The wavelength λ ranges from 0.33 to 0.95 μ covered by seven filters of bandwidth of about 0.05 μ. The wavelength range is being extended to 1.2, 1.6, and 2.2 μ and, with high-altitude ballooning, to 0.28 and 0.22 μ.