Abstract The potential benefits of a Long Duration Balloon (LDB) capability have long been recognized and some modest efforts have previously been undertaken by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF), et. al., going back to the late 1960's. In 1988, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) made a decision to dedicate significant resources toward this effort and a technical and management approach was established. The objective of the project is to develop a near global LDB capability for both Antarctic and mid-latitude applications, including the required telecommunications, navigation and positioning, power, data processing and control systems necessary to conduct flights of scientific experiments weighing 1500 pounds or more on conventional balloons for periods of up to three weeks. The first operational use of the new capability is planned in support of Solar Max experiments in Antarctica during the 1991–1992 austral summer. Development of the Antarctica support system configuration has been initiated and the first test flight was conducted from McMurdo Station in December 1989 – January 1990. The progress, status and future plans for development of the new LDB capability will be discussed.
NASA long duration balloon capability development project
Advances in Space Research ; 13 , 2 ; 115-118
1992-01-01
4 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
The NASA long duration balloon project
AIAA | 1991
|The NASA Long Duration Balloon Project
AIAA | 1994
|The NASA long duration balloon project
NTRS | 1991
|The NASA Long Duration Balloon Project
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1994
|