Scientific balloons reach new heights
By Christopher D. Yoder and Paul Voss|December 2024
The Balloon Systems Technical Committee supports development and application of free-floating systems and technologies for buoyant flight in the stratosphere and atmospheres of other planets.
Aerostar of South Dakota achieved several firsts, beginning in January with the inaugural launch, operation and recovery of a Thunderhead balloon, which uses hydrogen as a lift gas. In mid-October, Aerostar reached 673 consecutive days of having at least one balloon aloft in the stratosphere, in some cases for 150 consecutive days. In business news, Aerostar in March acquired Near Space Corp. of Oregon.
In February, NASA’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory concluded its flight, setting a NASA record for heavy-lift, long-endurance balloons. In January, the AESOP-Lit set an altitude record, reaching over 157,511 feet (48 kilometers) over Antarctica. And in September, NASA determined that a 60 million-cubic-foot balloon set an altitude record for a NASA balloon flown from Sweden. Another five launches were planned to occur by the end of 2024.
In July, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, completed a four-balloon campaign from Taiki Aerospace Research Field. The campaign included missions for technology development for a deep-space sample return capsule, Martian propeller concepts, stratospheric microbe collection and optical links between balloons and a ground station. In July, Japanese startup Iwaya Giken completed a test flight of its crewed balloon system for space tourism. The balloon exceeded 20 kilomters in altitude, an unofficial record for crewed flight altitude from Japan. In March, researchers at Smith College in Massachusetts and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany collaborated on five flights of controlled meteorological balloons, studying Arctic warm-air intrusions near Svalbard, Norway. In May, World View of Arizona announced World View Indo-Pacific. This wholly owned subsidiary, based in Australia, is to open a manufacturing facility and oversee stratospheric remote-sensing and space tourism operations in the region.
Urban Sky of Colorado achieved several milestones, including completing some 100 of its Microballoons, ranging in volume from 45 to 180 cubic meters. In January, Urban Sky won first place in the U.S. Army’s National Security Innovation Network’s Small Tactical Aerial Platforms for Extended Loitering Challenge. In August, the company was awarded $2.6 million from NASA’s FireSense project to develop a wildfire detection sensor.
Sandia National Laboratories of New Mexico and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of Washington collaborated under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Triton initiative to fly tethered balloons for marine wildlife monitoring in coastal California. In January, a field study evaluated the effectiveness of a tethered balloon equipped with thermal imagers for tracking and detecting wildlife near prospective offshore wind and marine energy installations.
In April, Sandia launched four balloons to observe the solar eclipse. In June, the lab partnered with Oklahoma State University to launch a record-setting 11 heliotropes — solar-heated hot-air balloons — from Belen Regional Airport in New Mexico, setting an internal record for the most launches in a day. Additionally, a 10-meter diameter balloon reached a stable altitude of 65,000 feet (19.8 km) carrying a 5-kilogram payload, the heaviest launched by Sandia’s heliotrope program.
The Physical Science Laboratory at New Mexico State University completed outreach events for the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. In April, 25-plus sounding balloons were launched from Granbury, Texas. In July, some 35 teachers participated in a Teachers in Space and New Mexico Space Grant Consortium balloon workshop.
In August, StarSpec Technologies of Canada completed a test flight at the Fort Sumner balloon facility in New Mexico for NASA’s Exoplanet Climate Infrared Telescope mission. EXCITE, built on the high-stabilized balloon-borne platform developed for the SuperBIT mission, has the 50-milliarcseconds stability required to measure precise spectra of exoplanets and their host stars in a near-space environment.
Contributors: Mary L. Bowden, Andrew Denney, Darielle Dexheimer, Hide Fuke, Jared Leidich, Anastasia Quanbeck, Erika L. Roesler, Javier Romualdez and Phil Wocken
