The US Long Duration Balloon Facility at McMurdo Station
Abstract
A sea change in scientific ballooning occurred with the inauguration of 8-20-day flights around Antarctica in the early 1990's. The attainment of 28-31-day flights and 35-42-day flights, respectively, in two and three circumnavigations of the continent has greatly increased the expectations of scientific users. There is a scientific need for the capability to provide similar-duration flights for investigations that cannot be done in the Polar Regions. A new super-pressure balloon is currently under development for future flights of 60-100 days at any latitude. This first new balloon in more than half a century would meet this need and allow the focus to change from increasing the durations of flights over and around Antarctica to ultra-long-duration flights from Antarctica.
- Publication:
-
Astrophysics from Antarctica
- Pub Date:
- January 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921312016833
- Bibcode:
- 2013IAUS..288..169J
- Keywords:
-
- NASA Balloon Program;
- Antarctic Ballooning;
- LDB;
- ULDB