NASA Balloon Research Articles

Overview of the NASA balloon R&D program

The catastrophic balloon failures during the first half of the 1980's identified the need for a comprehensive and continuing balloon research and development (R&D) commitment by NASA. Technical understanding was lacking in many of the disciplines and processes associated with scientific ballooning. A comprehensive balloon R&D plan was developed in 1986 and implemented in 1987. The objectives were to develop the understanding of balloon system performance, limitations, and failure mechanisms. The program consisted of five major technical areas: structures, performance and analysis, materials, chemistry and processing, and quality control. Research activities have been conducted at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)-Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), other NASA centers and government facilities, universities, and the balloon manufacturers. Several new and increased capabilities and resources have resulted from this activity. The findings, capabilities, and plans of the balloon R&D program are presented.

The in-flight performance of the ZEBRA day-time star sensor

The low energy balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope ZEBRA is capable of producing images of the sky with a resolution of 1° and a point source location accuracy of a few arcminutes. In order to fully exploit the sensitivity of this instrument, a platform stabilised in three axes to this precision has been developed, which however has an absolute pointing accuracy of 30′-1°. Therefore there is a need to have on board a system which will allow post facto reconstruction of the absolute pointing direction of the telescope as a function of time, for observations in both day- and night-time conditions. An independently steerable starsensor has been constructed, based on a CCD imaging system, for this purpose. The results obtained with this device during the first flight of the ZEBRA telescope in May 1989 from the NASA balloon base in Palestine, Texas are presented.

Recent developments and near-term expectations for the NASA Balloon Program

Covers advancements in spacecraft and tactical and strategic missile systems, including subsystem design and application, mission design and analysis, materials and structures, developments in space sciences, space processing and manufacturing, space operations, and applications of space technologies to other fields.

The LAPEX experiment for observation of the supernova SN 1987A in hard X-rays

The LAPEX payload is described in the configuration that will be launched to observe the supernova SN 1987A. The balloon flight will be performed from Alice Springs (Australia) in April 1989 as a part of a NASA balloon campaign. The experiment will allow simultaneous observations of source and background in order to minimize systematic errors due to background variations. The limiting flux sensitivity of the instrument in the (20÷200) keV energy band is 4·10−6 ph/(cm2s keV) or ∼2.5 mCrab for a 104 s observation of SN 1987A. The presence of a57Co emission line in the SN 1987A photon spectrum could be detected down to an intensity level of ∼8·10−5 photons/cm2s as at 99.7% confidence level. The high resolution of the event timing (<0.1 ms) will make it possible to detect millisecond pulsations with amplitudes down to ∼4% of the expected average flux from SN 1987A in the (20÷60) keV band.

Performance of a day time star sensor for a stabilized balloon platform

A modified version of a CCD (charge-coupled device) star tracker originally designed for use on the ROSAT X-ray astronomy satellite has been built for use on a three-axis-stabilized balloon platform. The first flight of this star sensor was planned for May 1988 from the NASA balloon base at Palestine, Texas. Descriptions are given of the star sensor head, flight electronics, and steering system. The expected performance of this instrument is described along with the preflight results, which confirm its performance.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>