Details of the balloon and launch operations
Launch site:Scientific Flight Balloon Facility, New Mexico, US
Launch team: National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF)
Balloon: Open balloon (zero pressure) 2.000 m3
Serial number: -
Flight identification number: 461NT
Campaign: -
Payload weight: -
Gondola weight: -
Overall weight: -
Description of the payload or experiment
ULDB (Ultra Long Duration Balloon)
Responsable institution: New Mexico State University / NASA Wallops Flight Facility
Principal Investigator: Steven Raque
A project to develope a balloon system capable of providing scientific measurements for 100-day missions with floating altitude close to 35km transporting payloads of near 1.5 tons.
It is a super-pressure balloon made of a composite fabric (polyester + polyethylene film and fabric) that is filled with Helium and hermetically sealed. Meridional tendons provide additional rigidity to the envelope. The pressure inside the envelop is maintained above the ambient pressure at all times to keep the balloon afloat at a constant altitude. During daytime the internal pressure increases due to solar heating but the volume remains constant due to the rigidity of the envelope. At night the pressure drops due to infrared radiative cooling to space, but as long as the internal pressure remains above the ambient pressure, the balloon stays at the same altitude.
On the future, transported by stratospheric winds around the globe at 30m/s the ULDB would be make a full circunnavegation to Earth in about 2 weeks.
Performance in flight and data obtained