European Ultra-light to Heavy-lift Stratospheric Balloons in the Polar Regions Svalbard - Norway & Baia Terra Nova - Antarctica

The Idea… Develop a program in the northern polar region for Long Duration Ballooning – take the project to Antarctica Develop a program in the northern polar region for Long Duration Ballooning – take the project to Antarctica Introduce science and technological payloads… small platforms < 25kg Introduce science and technological payloads… small platforms < 25kg Bring students into the program Bring students into the program

Location, location, location! Over-fly minimal population yet retain a recovery zone. This is a given for Antarctica…but rare in the north. Over-fly minimal population yet retain a recovery zone. This is a given for Antarctica…but rare in the north. Impact area that would cause the minimal environmental damage. Impact and recovery in the tundra leaves scars. The Greenland Ice Sheet offers a perfect target. Impact area that would cause the minimal environmental damage. Impact and recovery in the tundra leaves scars. The Greenland Ice Sheet offers a perfect target.

In theory, a stratospheric balloon launched from Svalbard, Norway should be carried around the polar region and return back over Svalbard…continue on, and be terminated over Greenland.

AND IN REALITY

THE PERFECT CIRCLE…ALMOST! First complete circumpolar trajectory - North Launched - June 14 th, 2006 Greenland Svalbard Impact – July 1 st, DAY FLIGHT

34km Ballast Drop ALTITUDE vs TIME

Stratospheric Winds… Through Satellite Derived Wind Data we know that the circulation pattern should be “set-up” to support a circumpolar trajectory by the first week of June. Through Satellite Derived Wind Data we know that the circulation pattern should be “set-up” to support a circumpolar trajectory by the first week of June. A model of the wind predictions was constructed…Cardillo/Musso – ISTI/CNR The model and the actual flight path coincide. A model of the wind predictions was constructed…Cardillo/Musso – ISTI/CNR The model and the actual flight path coincide.

Wind Prediction – May 30th

The Payload Telemetry – IRIDIUM, ARGOS (Elta) Telemetry – IRIDIUM, ARGOS (Elta) Power supply – SOLAR Power supply – SOLAR Science – Magnetometer (INGV)… X-RAY Detector ( Student Experiment - University of Tromso, NO) Science – Magnetometer (INGV)… X-RAY Detector ( Student Experiment - University of Tromso, NO) TELEMETRY & MAGNETOMETER BUILT BY INGV (Rome)…Gianni Romeo

Installing scientific instruments on a pathfinder offers the opportunity of exploring Polar Regions at an affordable cost. PEGASO hosts a 3-axis flux-gate magnetometer and is a complete flying geomagnetic observatory for studying geomagnetic crustal anomalies at continental scale as well as stratospheric circulation. PEGASO offers: Solar power Local data storage Bi-directional link to the ground station Ballasting and termination control features

Cylindrical solar array Solar cells are manufactured by depositing multiple layers of silicon alloy materials onto a thin stainless steel substrate The array is composed by very long single cells going trough the whole cylinder surface. During the flight they are lit always in the same way, for a good performance. Illumination over the plane representation of the cylindrical array System symmetry and flying area guarantee a constant illumination during the flight. This simplifies the charge control (no MPPT)

Solar array Solar cells are manufactured by depositing multiple layers of silicon alloy materials onto a thin stainless steel substrate in a patented roll- to-roll production process. The cell assembly is laminated (sealed) in flexible and durable weather resistant polymers that provide long life, high reliability. Bypass diodes are connected across each cell to produce shadow tolerance performance. The resulting solar cells are processed and connected in series to provide the required voltage. Eleven cells are connected in series to produce the required voltage for 12 volt battery charging.

Partial illumination power loss

Communication: Why IRIDIUM ? Low cost and good data rate where mandatory in this project. Point to point telemetry is difficult in polar areas, requiring too many ground stations; traditional satellite low-cost telemetry, ARGOS, is low data rate and is downlink only. Iridium is more expensive, more heavy and more complex (not more than an usual telephonic AT modem) but offers a bidiretional telemetry a good coverage in polar areas and a reasonable data rate

66 satellites (6 orbiting spares) a 780 km 100 minutes revolution period Communication to ground users MHz satellite-satellite communication GHZ satellite-ground communication GHz Ground-satellite communication GHz Digital channel speed 2400 bps Iridium constellation

Phone used in PEGASO Ordinary Iridium phones offer both acoustic and data communication (for just 1.5 Euro/min). The complexity of the ground station is shown below: just a notebook and an Iridium phone with a data kit.

How to build your own telemetry system Setting up a working Iridium data link is not much more difficult than building an ordinary point-to-point connection: it is just necessary to take in account the transmission delay and operate the right choice of packets length (time is money). computer Data kit Data kit computer 1.6 GHz 23 GHz satellites rs232

Digital I/O RCM2000 main processor Solar array Charge controller battery Low battery switch power supply adc board Panels temperature Panels voltage Panels current Battery voltage Vessel temperature Arm temperature IRIDIUM data kit IRIDIUM phone antenna Level adapter Main processor monitor Data monitor on-off phone 8 channels igniter driver To and from igniters rs232 GPS receiver scientific adc antenna PEGASO block diagram 3 channels magnetometer Magnetometer head

U1 U2.1 U2.2 U2.3 U3 U4 U5 U6 U0 Boards description U0 : IRIDIUM Telephone U1 : CPU and GPS Receiver U2.1: Flux Gate (Ch1) U2.2: Flux Gate (Ch2) U2.3: Flux Gate (Ch3) U3 : ADC board U4 : power supply U5 : charge controller U6 : igniters driver and tester Battery GPS Antenna IRIDUM Antenna Temperature sensor Panels connector Ballast / Release connector Testing connector Flux Gate Magn. conn. Boards 70 cm 10 cm Mechanical assembly PEGASO layout

working

Ground station at INGV Linux PCLAN Local storage Web server GSM modem Communication with 4 balloons Data available via web server Status via SMS Workstations via VPN modem

Ballast releasing Ballast tube may be remotely operated during the flight. Pictures on the right show the effect of the releasing on the altitude.

Flight System Balloon – AeroStar, SF /0-TA 9258 m³ Balloon – AeroStar, SF /0-TA 9258 m³ Parachute – 40 kg rating Parachute – 40 kg rating Terminate – Redundant squibs Terminate – Redundant squibs ARGOS Transmitter – On balloon used for tracking during flight and termination ARGOS Transmitter – On balloon used for tracking during flight and termination Radar Reflectors – 2 Radar Reflectors – 2 Meets International Rules of the Air Meets International Rules of the Air

PREPARING THE PAYLOAD

LAUNCH

ASCENT…

Ultra-Light Payloads Great Vehicle for technological testing Great Vehicle for technological testing Great Vehicle for science component testing Great Vehicle for science component testing Low cost Low cost Easy to transport equipment Easy to transport equipment Launch from nearly any location – airport, sports field, roadway, etc. Launch from nearly any location – airport, sports field, roadway, etc. Complete Recovery…nothing left behind Complete Recovery…nothing left behind

Students and Ultra-Lite payloads Affordable for most organizations Affordable for most organizations Hands on experience Hands on experience Involvement in all aspects of the program Involvement in all aspects of the program Stepping stone to future involvement in ballooning. Stepping stone to future involvement in ballooning.

Baia Terra Nova - Antarctica Ultra-Lite Balloon launches Ultra-Lite Balloon launches Known trajectory pattern Known trajectory pattern Recovery options Recovery options January 2006 launched the first PEGASO experiment from BTN. January 2006 launched the first PEGASO experiment from BTN.

TRAJECTORIES OVER ANTARCTICA – NSF/NASA

Ultra-Light systems help to teach students the various aspects of ballooning Ultra-Light systems help to teach students the various aspects of ballooning LDB with ultra-light systems is a cost efficient way to reach near space for testing purposes. LDB with ultra-light systems is a cost efficient way to reach near space for testing purposes. Ultra-Light Payloads lead to Heavy-Lift Payloads... Ultra-Light Payloads lead to Heavy-Lift Payloads... Like the forthcoming OLIMPO and BOOMERanG, to be flown from Svalbards next year Like the forthcoming OLIMPO and BOOMERanG, to be flown from Svalbards next year

OLIMPO ( An arcmin-resolution survey of the sky at mm and sub-mm wavelengths Silvia Masi Dipartimento di Fisica La Sapienza, Roma and the OLIMPO team

30’ CMB anisotropySZ clustersGalaxies mm-wave sky vs OLIMPO arrays 150 GHz220 GHz340 GHz540 GHz

OLIMPO observations of a SZ Cluster Simulated observation of a SZ cluster at 2 mm with the Olimpo array. The large scale signals are CMB anisotropy. The cluster is the dark spot evident in the middle of the figure. Parameters of this observation: scans at 1 o /s, amplitude of the scans 3 o p-p, detector noise 150 mK s 1/2, 1/f knee = 0.1 Hz, total observing time = 4 hours, comptonization parameter for the cluster y= o3o 3o3o

The uniqueness of OLIMPO OLIMPO measures in 4 frequency bands simultaneously. These bands optimally sample the spectrum of the SZ effect. This allows us to clean the signal from any dust and CMB contamination, and even to measure Te by means of the relativistic corrections.

BOOMERanG 28/Dec/1998

06/Jan/2003 BOOMERanG

B98 results: First resolved map of the CMB at sub- horizon scales Flatness of the Universe See de Bernardis et al. 2000, Netterfield et al. 2002, Ruhl et al B03 results: detection of CMB polarization (E-modes) See Masi et al. 2005, Montroy et al. 2005, Piacentini et al 2005

BOOMERanG-FG We plan to re-fly B03 with an upgraded forcal plane, to go after foreground cirrus dust polarization. This information is essential for all the planned B-modes experiments (e.g. BICEP, Dome-C etc.) and is very difficult to measure from ground. The BOOMERanG optics can host an array of >100 PSB at >350 GHz.

140 GHz PSB 240 GHz 340 GHz PSB 140 GHz PSB BOOMERanG- 03 BOOMERanG- FG Frequency range complementary to PILOT (higher f. J.F. Bernard, Toulouse)

270 o 180 o 90 o 0o0o ISM is everywhere ! With Boom-FG we will study the polarization properties in the clean region in the northern hemisphere Dust 3000 GHz (log scale) Northsouth B03

European Ultra-light to Heavy-lift Stratospheric Balloons in the Polar Regions In summary, a Svalbard-based facility provides a unique opportunity for long duration flights, to be used for didactic/outreach light experiments, as well as for heavy science payloads. The same know-how will be used for launches from Antarctica.