Aerospace (Nov 2023)
Data Downloaded via Parachute from a NASA Super-Pressure Balloon
- Ellen L. Sirks,
- Richard Massey,
- Ajay S. Gill,
- Jason Anderson,
- Steven J. Benton,
- Anthony M. Brown,
- Paul Clark,
- Joshua English,
- Spencer W. Everett,
- Aurelien A. Fraisse,
- Hugo Franco,
- John W. Hartley,
- David Harvey,
- Bradley Holder,
- Andrew Hunter,
- Eric M. Huff,
- Andrew Hynous,
- Mathilde Jauzac,
- William C. Jones,
- Nikky Joyce,
- Duncan Kennedy,
- David Lagattuta,
- Jason S.-Y. Leung,
- Lun Li,
- Stephen Lishman,
- Thuy Vy T. Luu,
- Jacqueline E. McCleary,
- Johanna M. Nagy,
- C. Barth Netterfield,
- Emaad Paracha,
- Robert Purcaru,
- Susan F. Redmond,
- Jason D. Rhodes,
- Andrew Robertson,
- L. Javier Romualdez,
- Sarah Roth,
- Robert Salter,
- Jürgen Schmoll,
- Mohamed M. Shaaban,
- Roger Smith,
- Russell Smith,
- Sut Ieng Tam,
- Georgios N. Vassilakis
Affiliations
- Ellen L. Sirks
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Richard Massey
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Ajay S. Gill
- Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Jason Anderson
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Steven J. Benton
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Anthony M. Brown
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Paul Clark
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Joshua English
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Spencer W. Everett
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Aurelien A. Fraisse
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Hugo Franco
- Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, 1510 Farm Road 3224, Palestine, TX 75803, USA
- John W. Hartley
- StarSpec Technologies Inc., Unit C-5, 1600 Industrial Road, Cambridge, ON N3H 4W5, Canada
- David Harvey
- Laboratoire d’Astrophysique, EPFL, Observatoire de Sauverny, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Bradley Holder
- University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), 4925 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H 5T6, Canada
- Andrew Hunter
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Eric M. Huff
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Andrew Hynous
- NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Balloon Program Office, 34200 Fulton St., Wallops Island, VA 23337, USA
- Mathilde Jauzac
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- William C. Jones
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Nikky Joyce
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Duncan Kennedy
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- David Lagattuta
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Jason S.-Y. Leung
- Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Lun Li
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Stephen Lishman
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Thuy Vy T. Luu
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Jacqueline E. McCleary
- Department of Physics, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Johanna M. Nagy
- Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- C. Barth Netterfield
- Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Emaad Paracha
- Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada
- Robert Purcaru
- Division of Engineering Science, 40 St. George Street, Room 2110, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada
- Susan F. Redmond
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Jason D. Rhodes
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Andrew Robertson
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- L. Javier Romualdez
- StarSpec Technologies Inc., Unit C-5, 1600 Industrial Road, Cambridge, ON N3H 4W5, Canada
- Sarah Roth
- NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Balloon Program Office, 34200 Fulton St., Wallops Island, VA 23337, USA
- Robert Salter
- Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, 1510 Farm Road 3224, Palestine, TX 75803, USA
- Jürgen Schmoll
- Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Mohamed M. Shaaban
- Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada
- Roger Smith
- California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Russell Smith
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Sut Ieng Tam
- Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
- Georgios N. Vassilakis
- Department of Physics, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10110960
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 10,
no. 11
p. 960
Abstract
In April 2023, the superBIT telescope was lifted to the Earth’s stratosphere by a helium-filled super-pressure balloon to acquire astronomical imaging from above (99.5% of) the Earth’s atmosphere. It was launched from New Zealand and then, for 40 days, circumnavigated the globe five times at a latitude 40 to 50 degrees south. Attached to the telescope were four “drs” (Data Recovery System) capsules containing 5 TB solid state data storage, plus a gnss receiver, Iridium transmitter, and parachute. Data from the telescope were copied to these, and two were dropped over Argentina. They drifted 61 km horizontally while they descended 32 km, but we predicted their descent vectors within 2.4 km: in this location, the discrepancy appears irreducible below ∼2 km because of high speed, gusty winds and local topography. The capsules then reported their own locations within a few metres. We recovered the capsules and successfully retrieved all of superBIT’s data despite the telescope itself being later destroyed on landing.
Keywords
- balloon instrumentation
- data handling
- data compression
- models and simulations
- large detector-systems performance
