Weekly Balloon News #19
June 7th, 2023
Upcoming JAXA balloon missions for 2023
On May 25, 2023 JAXA held a conference to present their plans for experimental research in 2023 at Taiki Aerospace Research Field in Hokkaido.
So far, the balloon launch campaign that will take place between June 19 and September 2nd. will include 5 experiments:
MABE2 (Mars Airplane Balloon Experiment 2) to be launched as mission B23-05 in a B100 balloon (100.000 cubic meters). The objective of the flight is to test a fixed-wing aircraft aimed to fly on Mars, more specifically to optically measure MABE2's aeroelastic deformation under dynamic pressure loads equivalent to a high-altitude flight test.
GRAMS (Gamma-Ray and AntiMatter Survey) to be flown as mission B23-06 in a B30 balloon (30.000 cubic meters) is an international next-generation proposed balloon/satellite mission that will be the first to target both MeV gamma-ray observations and antimatter-based indirect dark matter using a LArTPC (Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber) detector.
Two flights for the RERA (Rubber balloon Experiment for Reentry capsule with thin-type Aeroshell) project to be launched as missions B23-07 and B23-09 using rubber balloons. The objective of both flights will be to test atmospheric entry technology in the form of a new capsule to allow sample return from deep space. The system is based on a lightweight, large, thin-shell conical aeroshell with a low ballistic coefficient, and one of its major features is that it can descend to the ground without the need for a parachute.
Finally, HIGHPER (HIGH-altitude Propeller Evaluation Research) will be flown as mission BS23-08 and will be aimed to evaluate a propeller able to modify and alter the course of a balloon in flight in the stratosphere.
Transatlantic balloon crossing from Canada to Europe
Deborah and Mike Scholes two aeronauts from Sussex, United Kingdom will try this month to perform a Transatlantic crossing from Canada to Europe. The couple has been planning the feat for many years and was originally set to take place in 2019, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, the Scholes are finally ready to make ballooning history as they set out to attempt two world firsts: Deborah aims to become the first female pilot in command, and Mike, the first registered blind crew member to make a Transatlantic crossing in a balloon.
Refire, a Chinese company specializing in making hydrogen fuel cells is the main sponsor of the Challenge. Other companies also supporting the flight are Virgin Atlantic, Cameron Balloons, Hairworks, Icom and GTC among others. The balloon to be used for the crossing is a Rozière a type of hybrid balloon that has separate chambers for a non-heated lifting gas (helium) as well as a heated lifting gas (as used in a hot air balloon or Montgolfière).
The aeronauts are ready to start their flight from Sussex, New Brunswick in Canada as soon as the weather allows. According to the latest forecast is not expected to launch until at least Saturday 10th June due to the presence of a vast low-pressure system off of the coast of Nova Scotia that is causing unsuitable weather conditions for launch.
The crossing can be followed in real-time via the website of the project.
SuperBIT telescope dragged after landing in Argentina. Probably destroyed.
In an interview with the University of Toronto, prof. Barth Netterfield, Principal Investigator of the SuperBIT telescope that recently completed a 40 days mission in the southern hemisphere, confirmed what I’ve initially suspected: the telescope resulted destroyed after being dragged in rough terrain.
”…In a follow up interview, Prof. Netterfield said that the recovery in the 2023 mission had its own challenges, where a piece of the NASA/CSBF equipment failed, so the parachute did not properly disconnect from the payload on landing, causing the payload to drag in high winds over rough terrain for 2-3 km, basically destroying everything. The research team will have to rebuild the entire instrument before the next flight…”
I’ve suspected after landing that something odd occurred: after examining the telemetry data, I’ve seen two more readings once the payload was on the ground showing displacement of the payload over time.
However, as I was not so sure if that could be due to some “glitch” in the data, I decided to keep that for myself.
It’s not the first time that the Semi-Automatic Parachute Release (SAPR) system fails. In 2006, during the first Antarctic mission of the BLAST telescope, the parachute which allowed a safe return to earth of the instrument instead of being detacched from the gondola remained connected to it and turned into a huge sail. Fueled by the endless polar wind, it dragged the craft over the ice making a furrow on the ground near 120 miles long. Along the path of the runaway gondola, BLAST was scattered to useless pieces in less than 24 hours before the gondola come to rest in an ice crevasse. After two days of frantic search along the debris field, the pressure vessel (containing the 2 hard disks of recorded data mirrored on both of them) was spotted from a plane and finally recovered allowing to save the data from the mission.
Aerostar completes multi-day balloon mission for NASA
The Thunderhead balloon mission HBAL629 launched by Aerostar from its Hurley (SD) flight facility in South Dakota on May 24, finally ended its flight on June 5 over Oregon after traveling more than 7.000 kilometers across 8 states.
Total flight time of the mission was near 10 days.
The flight was part of an agreement with NASA to host experiments for students from several Universities and Institutes in the United States that participated in the TechLeap Prize including the Bronco Space Club at Cal Poly Pomona, California, Orion Labs LLC from Nunn, Colorado, and Texas A&M SEAK Lab.
Meanwhile, the other Thunderhead Aerostar in flight, mission HBAL628 continues operating after more than a month aloft. It was launched from Hurley (SD) on May 5, 2023, and initially moved across the Nebraska/Texas border. Last week, the balloon moved farther west and started to hover between New Mexico and Colorado with the same in-and-out pattern between both states we had seen before.
As stated by Aerostar, the mission would endure several months.
New Aerostar launch facility officially inaugurated
Although it was active since March with five Thunderhead balloon launches performed since, on June 1st. 2023, Aerostar had a little ribbon-cutting ceremony to formally inaugurate its new balloon facility near Hurley (SD) that will take over the place of the former Raven Innovation Campus near Baltic (SD) which until February was the main launch facility of the firm.
The ceremony included the presence of Aerostar president Jim Nelson, Field Services Lead, Josh Davis, officials from Turner County, Aerostar employees, and a cake specially prepared for the occasion.
The party had a very special guest in the figure of Fred Vandersnick, a member of the original Aerostar Flight Operations team. He started working for Raven in 1960 and participated in more than 500 high-altitude balloon flights all over the world during his career.
The ceremony included a barbecue and the presence of the Vanguard Squadron, an aerobatic team based at Lincoln County Airport that joined the celebration making several passes overhead the facility.
New contents in StratoCat
Following last week’s trend, I continued updating and adding data on several Japanese-made flights
The 2011 mission from Taiki-Cho of the µ-LRS or Micro-Laboratory Reentry System a small reentry capsule in the shape of the infamous Apollo Command Module with the capability of allowing guidance during the reentry phase.
A 2010 mission to study Ozone and Gravity Waves using a very-high altitude balloon made of ultra-thin film
A test flight of a Fuel Cell System for future use in balloon missions performed from Sanriku in 2007
Added three previously unregistered balloon flights performed in 2022 at the Syowa Antarctic Base. The flights part of the LODEWAVE ( Long-Duration Balloon Experiment of Gravity WAVE over Antarctica) were performed using super-pressure balloons on January 6, on February 4, and finally on February 6 during the 63rd Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition.
As usual, all the flight reports are full of technical details, pictures -when available- and external references on peer-reviewed papers, freely available thanks to Sci-Hub and the open-access community.
See you in a few days.