In another first, NASA launched a new kind of research balloon, a super-pressure balloon, that will stay afloat nearly twice as long as existing balloons.
Scientific American is calling it NASA’s “most ambitious scientific balloon ever.”
Launched last weekend from McMurdo Station in Antarctica, this 532,000 cubic meter aerostatic balloon uses a ‘super-pressure’ design, consisting of a series of ropes, to keep its volume consistent. This design will help the balloon stay adrift much longer than traditional helium balloons, which lose volume when the sun goes down and air cools.
The new super-pressure balloon is expected to stay launched more than 100 days, almost double the current record of a NASA balloon flight of 55 days.
Why does this matter? “More time aloft equals more science. The new super-pressure balloon is carrying a γ-ray telescope to hunt for high-energy photons streaming from the cosmos. Known as the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), it can detect where in the sky these γ rays are coming from, and thus begin to unravel various astronomical mysteries,” reports SA. If you’ve ever watched Werner Herzog’s great documentary Encounters at the End of the World, you’ll know exactly what they’re talking about.
Ballooning saves a lot of money, too. Being able to collect data from a balloon saves agencies from launching more expensive satellites into space. Google is also continuing with its balloon experiments with Project Loon, or Internet-enabled balloons happily drifting along, bringing you closer to your Amazon Prime.
So what happens when a balloon meets a drone? We can’t wait to find out.
