A naukri.com initiative
Nasa
2w
420
Image Credit: Nasa
NASA Scientific Balloon Flights to Lift Off From Antarctica
- NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has kicked off its annual Antarctic Long-Duration Balloon Campaign, where two balloon flights will carry a total of nine missions to near space, including investigations in astrophysics, space biology, heliospheric research and upper atmospheric research, along with technology demonstrations.
- The campaign includes a General Anti-Particle Spectrometer experiment designed to detect anti-matter particles, a good indication of dark matter interactions.
- The second mission, Salter Test Flight Universal, will test and validate long-duration balloon and subsystems, while supporting several piggyback missions.
- Piggyback missions include a U.S. Naval Research Laboratory experiment exposing fungus to the stratosphere’s extreme radiation and temperature fluctuations, National Polytechnical Institute’s technological platform with experimental design and operational validation of instrumentation that will collect and store data from the stratospheric environment to contribute to the study of climate change among others.
- NASA’s zero-pressure balloons, used in the Antarctic campaign, are capable of lifting up to 8,000 pounds of payload and equipment to altitudes above 99.8% of Earth’s atmosphere.
- Zero-pressure balloons can support long-duration missions in polar regions during summer and can remain in near space for days to weeks.
- NASA's Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division.
- The program is managed by NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, with support provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, New Zealand and the U.S. Air Force.
- The constant daylight of Antarctica’s summer and stable stratospheric wind conditions allow the balloon missions to circle the continent.
- NASA balloons are fabricated by Aerostar and launched by the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, which has launched over 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations.
Read Full Article
25 Likes
For uninterrupted reading, download the app