More modest and ignored than rockets, stratospheric balloons They are crucial for many scientific research NASA. The last of these huge balloons has just concluded its mission after 17 days circumnavating the southern hemisphere.
17 days back to the world. In early May, NASA ended the first flight of its 2025 superpression balloons campaign. A stratospheric balloon drew a route around the average latitudes of the southern hemisphere, furrowing the sky for 17 days, 13 hours and 47 minutes.
Launched April 17 from Wanaka airportin New Zealand, the globe completed a complete circumnavigation on May 3, and merited the next day in the Pacific Ocean, 1,300 kilometers from the east coast of New Zealand.
Straight to the bottom of the sea. Although the mission met the minimum requirements, NASA’s team had been monitoring a possible leak. The balloon lost altitude during the night when crossing areas with colder temperatures, so that their operators decided to finish the flight over the Pacific, without the possibility of recovering the payload.
The space agency leaves nothing to chance, even in case of ruling. This type of balloons uses the two -tons payload itself as ballast to sink the entire flight train to the ocean bottom as quickly as possible. In this way, the globe is prevented from remaining in the primary zone of the water column, where most of the marine species.
The mission. In addition to trying a new superpression balloon design, this first 2025 flight transported the Hiwind missionwhose objective was to measure the neutral wind in the thermosfera, the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that is between the mesosphere and the exosphere, to help scientists understand and predict changes in the ionosphere, which can affect communication and navigation systems.
Since the mission ended early (the globe that has been in flight lasted more time 57 days), NASA will thoroughly investigate the cause of altitude loss to reduce the probability that a similar problem occurs on future flights. The second campaign superpression balloon It was released on Saturday, May 3 and can be followed in real time on the NASA website.
What are the superpression balloons. Are Pumpkin -shaped balloons whose structures, completely sealed, maintain a positive internal pressure and an almost constant volume, which allows them greater altitude stability and flights of much longer duration, since the loss of gas is minimal.
With a diameter of 150 meters, the most common volume is 1.13 million cubic meters. A balloon of this size could house a football stadium inside when it is completely inflated. They fly to altitudes of up to 36 kilometers, more than double the altitude of commercial airplanes. And they have been playing for some time as an alternative to space releases For space tourism.
What are these balloons for. NASA’s scientific balloons are a low cost form of accessing the stratosphere to do research on land or outer space. Some carry telescopes on board.
The NASA scientific balloons program performs, between 10 and 15 individual flights every year. The heavens continue to offer valuable opportunities for science, without always turning on the engines of a rocket.
Images | POT
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