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NASA Stratospheric Balloons Science at the Edge of Space National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Stratospheric Balloons Science at the edge of Space REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC BALLOONING ASSESSMENT GROUP The Scientific Ballooning Assessment Group Martin Israel Washington University in St. Louis, Chair Steven Boggs University of California, Berkeley Michael Cherry Louisiana State University Mark Devlin University of Pennsylvania Jonathan Grindlay Harvard University Bruce Lites National Center for Astrophysics Research James Margitan Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jonathan Ormes University of Denver Carol Raymond Jet Propulsion Laboratory Eun-Suk Seo University of Maryland, College Park Eliot Young Southwest Research Institute, Boulder Vernon Jones NASA Headquarters, Executive Secretary Ex Officio: Vladimir Papitashvili NSF, Office of Polar Programs David Pierce NASA, GSFC/WFF Balloon Program Office, Chief Debora Fairbrother NASA, GSFC/WFF Balloon Program Office, Technologist Jack Tueller NASA GSFC, Balloon Program Project Scientist John Mitchell NASA GSFC, Balloon Program Deputy Project Scientist Cover Photo: The Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer, BESS Polar II at Williams Field, McMurdo, Antarctica. Facing Page Photo: The International ocusingF Optics Collaboration for micro-Crab Sensitivity (InFOCmS), a hard x-ray telescope with CdZnTe pixel detector as a focal plane imager. NASA Stratospheric Balloons Science at the edge of Space Report of the Scientific Ballooning Assessment Group January 2010 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Scientific Ballooning has Made Important Contributions to NASA’s Program 9 Balloon-borne Instruments Will Continue to Contribute to NASA’s Objectives 15 Many Scientists with Leading Roles in NASA were Trained in the Balloon Program 35 The Balloon Program has Substantial Capability for Achieving Quality Science 37 Findings 41 Acronyms 46 References 49 The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass instrument (CREAM) hangs on the launch vehicle at Williams Field near McMurdo base Antarctica. Executive Summary Balloon-borne science and mission opportunities are more promising than ever in the 50-year history of the balloon program. Long duration and large-area/mass payloads are able to fly in near-space conditions offering exciting opportunities for both development and actual science for many of NASA’s highest priority areas for current and future missions. Flights of days to weeks are now routine, and substantial progress has been made in enabling multi-month exposures. Balloon-borne missions can typically be carried out at less than 10 percent of the cost of a corresponding satellite mission, and on much shorter timescales. The A beautiful sunrise behind Balloon Program is arguably the most cost effective and scientifically compelling of a balloon being inflated. the various NASA suborbital programs. It provides the most complete and efficient Just after sunrise or just springboard both for instrument development and for the scientists and engineers before sunset are good who will carry out the space-science missions of the future. This springboard has launch times. enabled numerous successful space missions, launched the careers of many Principal Investigators, and trained numerous leaders in NASA space and Earth science over the past three decades. • Instruments carried on high-altitude balloons have produced important scientific results, and many more significant results from balloon-borne instruments can be expected in the future. • Many instruments subsequently used on spacecraft for major astrophysical observations were initially developed with flights on high-altitude balloons, and balloon flights continue to be important for testing future space-flight instruments. • Scientific ballooning is an unexcelled environment in which to train graduate students and young post-doctoral scientists; indeed, many leading astrophysicists, including Nobel laureates John Mather and George Smoot, gained invaluable early experience in the balloon program. In this report, the Scientific Ballooning Assessment Group identifies three high- priority needs to enhance a strong balloon program and enable even greater contributions to NASA’s highest priority science over the coming decade: • Fund an increased number of more-sophisticated balloon payloads. Most of the simple experiments have been done. Increased funding is required to train a new generation of Principal Investigators and to build advanced payloads suitable for multiple flights that can exploit the new ballooning capabilities coming online. • Complete the current development program of super-pressure balloons (SPB) to enable an operational program of long-duration (≥ 15-day) mid-latitude flights and extend this program to support flights of heavy instruments to altitudes not allowed by the current development. There is currently a successful program of long-duration (20- to 40-day) flights 3 REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC BALLOONING PLANNING TEAM that take advantage of the continuous sunlight over Antarctica in austral summer; however, not all balloon science can be done in the Polar Regions. Much of the high priority science accessible to balloon-borne instruments requires long flights at mid-latitudes. The current super-pressure balloon development has the goal of taking 1000 kg instruments to 33.5 km altitude, where much useful science can be done. Extension of the program to develop balloons capable of taking 1000-kg instruments to 38 km would enable an important class of instruments that cannot work effectively at the lower altitudes. • Build capability for 100-day flights. Development of modest trajectory- modification capability to ensure that balloons do not fly erov populous areas is important for Ultra-Long-Duration Balloon (ULDB) flights of about 100 days. For a number of investigations, these would be truly competitive with orbital missions, enabling breakthrough science at greatly reduced total cost. Scientific ballooning has made important contributions to NASA’s science program. It has contributed directly with important science results, and indirectly by serving as a test platform on which instruments have been developed that were subsequently used on NASA spacecraft. Examples of new science from balloon-borne instruments include early maps of the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the first identification of antiprotons in the cosmic rays, early detection of gamma-ray spectral lines from supernova 1987A, the first observation of positron-emission lines from the galaxy, early detection of black-hole x-ray transients in the galactic center region, and observations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and chlorine monoxide radicals in the stratosphere. In November 2008, the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) collaboration reported measurements of high-energy cosmic-ray electrons by an instrument flown three times over Antarctica, displaying a feature in the spectrum that suggests a nearby cosmic-ray source, possibly the signature of annihilation of dark-matter particles. In April 2009, reported results from an Antarctic LDB balloon flight of the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) demonstrated that the submillimeter background light discovered by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite comes from individual galaxies identified by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Examples abound of spacecraft instrumentation derived from balloon-flights predecessors. All the instruments on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) were developed from balloon-flight instruments. The design of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) grew out of CMB balloon flights in the late 1980s and 1990s. The detectors on the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) Shortly after launch were first developed for balloon-borne instruments. The scintillating fiber trajectory helium fills only a small detector for the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer on the Advanced Composition fraction of a balloon’s volume. At float altitude Explorer (ACE) was demonstrated first in balloon flights. The viability of Cd-Zn-Te the helium has (CZT) detectors in space-like environments was first demonstrated on several balloon expanded and the balloon flights, enabling their use on the highly successful Swift satellite. Several Earth Observing is nearly spherical. System (EOS)-Aura satellite instruments trace their heritage to balloon-flight devices, as (See image on page 28.) does the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument that flew on the Mars 4 REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC BALLOONING PLANNING TEAM Polar Lander as part of the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor (MVACS) payload. The Mars Science Laboratory will carry a similar instrument. Balloon-borne instruments will continue to contribute to NASA’s objectives. Investigations on balloons, underway or planned, directly address objectives in NASA’s Prominent examples, who have 2007 Science Plan, the 2006 plans of the four divisions of NASA’s Science Mission attested to the importance of Directorate, and the 2004 joint NASA–NSF –DOE Physics of the Universe—Strategic the Balloon Program to their Plan for Federal Research at the Intersection of Physics and Astronomy. career development, include John Mather and George Balloon-borne instruments are being developed that will advance the techniques Smoot, winners of 2006 Nobel for hard x-ray astronomy envisioned for the Black-Hole Finder Probe (BHFP) and the International X-Ray Observatory (IXO). Planned instruments will also support Prize in Physics. the objectives
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