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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Longitudinal variation of mid-latitude hiss from six long duration balloon flights

The longitudinal variation of midlatitude hiss as measured on six balloons at latitudes of 35-55 deg S, shows a significant minimum at 70-80 deg E, about 1000 km east of the geomagnetic conjugate of the Soviet transmitter UMS (17.1 kHz). It is suggested that the well documented pitch-angle diffusion induced by the UMS signal removes the ability of the trapped electrons to maintain the amplification of the hiss to at least the reflection and reducting losses (about 20 dB) at the ends of the echoing ducted path. The eastward shift of the minimum from the conjugate of UMS is primarily caused by the time taken by the eastward-drifting electrons to recover this ability, though the effect is enhanced by the east-west asymmetry in the propagation of hiss under the ionosphere.

Dowden, R. L.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Report on ISR-1 High-Altitude Balloon Flight

To test small technologies at lower cost for space science applications, LANL has developed a small high altitude balloon payload that could, in the future, be regularly and inexpensively launched from LANL. A neutron detector, NEMO, was integrated to evaluate its performance in a space-like mixed-radiation environment and collect neutron data in the atmosphere. In collaboration with EES-14, a high-altitude balloon payload was launched from LANL Technical Area 51 on February 27, 2023 and April 17, 2023. For real-time geolocation, a SAM-M8Q M8 GNSS module was used to get position and time, and an Iridium RockBLOCK 9603 was used to communicate with the ground using the Iridium satellite fleet. These modules were all controlled using an Iteaduino Mega microcontroller board. Finally, a High Altitude Science Eagle Flight Computer with a temperature pressure sensor ran independently, writing data to an SD card. All of these modules were powered by a 5 mAh lithium polymer battery. The battery was attached to the bottom of the payload while the remaining electronics were embedded in the underside of the top of the payload. These modules were wired as seen in Figure 1-2. The Iteaduino Mega microcontroller board was programmed to use the RockBLOCK to send a message once every 10 minutes containing neutron and GPS data read off the NEMO and SAM M8Q, respectively. Once the message send attempt finished, the RockBLOCK would be slept for the rest of the 10 minute interval. The Eagle Flight Computer ran continuously throughout the flight, taking data every 6 seconds. The RockBLOCK message data was set up to be delivered from the Iridium satellite fleet to a website, where it was stored and parsed to create live maps and plots for analysis and balloon retrieval. The RockBLOCK message data was additionally configured to be sent to an email as a fail-safe. The payload was ground-tested successfully for over 50 hours, with multiple revisions occurring to best prepare for conditions at altitude and improve the software and firmware to fix any issues that cropped up with the data pipeline. Additional to the balloon payload, the flight had an attached iMet-4 radiosonde and Garmin T5 GPS Dog Collar. The radiosonde provided GPS and meteorological data. The T5 dog collar is used along with a Garmin Astro 430 to track the balloon at a range of up to 9 miles for retrieval. The balloon itself was initially a 1600 g meteorological balloon with an attached High Altitude Science parachute, both of which can be seen in Figure 1-3. After the first flight, the EES team swapped to a Rocketman parachute.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1993

Concept report: Experimental vector magnetograph (EXVM) operational configuration balloon flight assembly

The observational limitations of earth bound solar studies has prompted a great deal of interest in recent months in being able to gain new scientific perspectives through, what should prove to be, relatively low cost flight of the magnetograph system. The ground work done by TBE for the solar balloon missions (originally planned for SOUP and GRID) as well as the rather advanced state of assembly of the EXVM has allowed the quick formulation of a mission concept for the 30 cm system currently being assembled. The flight system operational configuration will be discussed as it is proposed for short duration flight (on the order of one day) over the continental United States. Balloon hardware design requirements used in formulation of the concept are those set by the National Science Balloon Facility (NSBF), the support agency under NASA contract for flight services. The concept assumes that the flight hardware assembly would come together from three development sources: the scientific investigator package, the integration contractor package, and the NSBF support system. The majority of these three separate packages can be independently developed; however, the computer control interfaces and telemetry links would require extensive preplanning and coordination. A special section of this study deals with definition of a dedicated telemetry link to be provided by the integration contractor for video image data for pointing system performance verification. In this study the approach has been to capitalize to the maximum extent possible on existing hardware and system design. This is the most prudent step that can be taken to reduce eventual program cost for long duration flights. By fielding the existing EXVM as quickly as possible, experience could be gained from several short duration flight tests before it became necessary to commit to major upgrades for long duration flights of this system or of the larger 60 cm version being considered for eventual development.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2015

Initial Results from the Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) Balloon Flight Mission

The NASA Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) high-altitude balloon mission was successfully launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico USA on 25 September, 2015. Over 15 hours of science data were obtained from four dosimeters at altitudes above about 25 km. The four dosimeters flown on the RaD-X science payload are a Hawk version 3.0 Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) manufactured by Far West Technologies, a Liulin dosimeter-spectrometer produced by the Solar Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, a total ionizing dose detector manufactured by Teledyne Microelectronic Technologies, and the RaySure detector provided by the University of Surrey.

Mertens, Christopher J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) Measurements Made by M-42 Active Dosimeters on NASA Balloon Flights (New Mexico & Antarctica) Resemble Levels Expected at Mars

Mimicking galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) is difficult with ground-based simulations and experimental results are limited by facility constraints. In the past year, we flew two consecutive missions on large NASA scientific balloons (to ~ 38 km altitude) launched from New Mexico (6.5-hr flight) and Antarctica (32-d flight) and will report GCR doses comparable to levels expected at the equatorial Mars surface. Measurements were made in collaboration with the DLR and utilizing the M-42 active radiation dosimeter developed for use on Artemis 1. The M-42 instrument stores data in flash memory, records charged particles over a substantial part of the trapped proton and the GCR LET spectrum, and can be easily integrated into payloads due to its compact size (182 x 44 x 22 mm; 237 g) and internal battery (up to 6 weeks of operation). Our presentation will provide an overview of the two recent balloon missions (payload description; flight profiles), and summarize the radiation data collected in the middle stratosphere, highlighting how robust, real GCR exposures can be achieved without needing to fly orbital or deep space experiments.

radiation↗
NASA NTRS1990

Performance of bismuth germanate active shielding on a balloon flight over Antarctica

The GRAD (Gamma-Ray Advanced Detector) gamma-ray spectrometer was flown on a balloon at an altitude of 36.6 km over Antarctica on January 8-10, 1988, where it was used to make observations of SN 1987A. The performance of the bismuth germanate (BGO) active shielding in the near-space environment over Antarctica is examined. The promised effectiveness of this shielding in the suppression of unwanted background has been demonstrated. The BGO-shielded GRAD spectrometer detected gamma-ray lines with fluxes of 0.002/sq cm sec from SN 1987A in a radiation background approximately a factor of 4 more intense than that over Alice Springs, Australia. This level of sensitivity indicates that BGO is at least as effective as CsI when used as active shielding. Isomerism is common, both in the bismuth and germanium regions of the nuclear chart, but is found to be less of a problem for background suppression in the latter region than in the former.

Rester, A. C.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X): High-Altitude Balloon Flight Mission for Improving the NAIRAS Model

The NASA Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) high-altitude balloon mission was successfully launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico USA on 25 September, 2015. Over 15 hours of science data were obtained from four dosimeters at altitudes above about 25 km. One of the main goals of the RaD-X mission is to improve aviation radiation model characterization of cosmic ray primaries by taking dosimetric measurements above the Pfotzer maximum before the production of secondary particles occurs. The second goal of the RaD-X mission is to facilitate the pathway toward real-time, data assimilative predictions of atmospheric cosmic radiation exposure by identifying and characterizing low-cost radiation measurement solutions.

Mertens, Christopher J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Capability Demonstration of a 3D CdZnTe Detector on a High-Altitude Balloon Flight

In collaboration between the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory, a 3D position-sensing CdZnTe (CZT) detector prototype was built and integrated into a high-altitude balloon platform to evaluate its performance in a space-like mixed-radiation environment. The detector prototype, Orion Eagle, was designed to operate in near-vacuum environments without any temperature regulation. Orion Eagle was hand-launched from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) at Fort Sumner, NM on September 26, 2021, and successfully operated throughout a 9-hour flight, which reached 38.5 km in altitude. The flight met its objectives, successfully detecting atmospheric gamma rays and galactic cosmic rays, and raising the Technical Readiness Level from 4 to 6 for large-volume 3D CZT detector technology for space applications. Ionization tracks produced by charged particles create spatial signatures in the detector that are distinguishable from discrete gamma-ray interactions. Therefore, the 3D position-sensing capabilities using pixelated electrodes on a CZT detector can help enable discrimination of background charged particles from gamma-ray events without an anticoincidence shield. The potential for background rejection capability, ambient-temperature operation, gamma-ray coded-aperture and Compton imaging, and near High Purity Germanium (HPGe) energy resolution motivate the use of large-volume 3D CZT imaging spectrometers in future space missions.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1976

Search for gamma ray bursts with coincident balloon flights

A search was conducted for cosmic gamma ray bursts of small size and of sufficient frequency of occurrence to be detected during a one day observation program. Two similar detectors, successfully balloon-borne from launch sites in South Dakota and Texas, achieved about 20 hours of simultaneous operation at several millibars atmospheric depth, with continuous separation of over 1,500 km. Fluctuations of the counting rates of less than 150 keV photons with temporal structures from microseconds to several minutes were compared in order to detect coincident or associated responses from the two instruments. No coincident gamma-ray burst events were detected. The resulting integral size spectrum of small bursts, from this and from all other searches, remains a spectrum of upper limits, consistent with an extrapolation of the size spectrum of the largest known bursts, fitting a power low of index -1.5.

Cline, T. L.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Measurement of 200-400 nm solar UV fluxes on the STRATCOM 8A balloon flight

A filter wheel UV Spectroirradiometer was used to measure solar UV fluxes in 10 bandpasses in the 200-400 nm region at altitudes up to 40 km on Stratcom 8A. Ozone layer thicknesses were derived from the balloon ascent measurements and an ozone density profile obtained. Measurements at the 39-40 km float altitude before and after local noon give a solar flux in the (220 + or - 5) nm O2-O3 transmission window of 4.53 x .000001 W/(cm squared-nm) at approximately 1 A U on 29 September 1977, when the sunspot number was about 63.

Hanser, F. A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The GRAD high-altitude balloon flight over Antarctica

The Gamma Ray Advanced Detector (GRAD) consists of a n-type germanium detector inside an active bismuth-germanate Compton and charged particle shield with additional active plastic shielding across the aperture. It will be flown on a high-altitude balloon at 36 km altitude at a latitude of 78 deg S over Antarctica for observations of gamma radiation emitted by the radioactive decay of Co-56 in the supernova SN1987A, for assessment of the performance of bismuth-germanate scintillation material in the radiation environment of near space, for gathering information on the gamma-ray background over Antarctica, and for testing fault-tolerant software.

Eichhorn, G.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A High Resolution Liquid Xenon Imaging Telescope for 0.3-10 MeV Gamma Ray Astrophysics: Construction and Initial Balloon Flights

The results achieved with a 3.5 liter liquid xenon time projection chamber (LXe-TPC) prototype during the first year include: the efficiency of detecting the primary scintillation light for event triggering has been measured to be higher than 85%; the charge response has been measured to be stable to within 0.1% for a period of time of about 30 hours; the electron lifetime has been measured to be in excess of 1.3 ms; the energy resolution has been measured to be consistent with previous results obtained with small volume chambers; X-Y gamma ray imaging has been demonstrated with a nondestructive orthogonal wires readout; Monte Carlo simulation results on detection efficiency, expected background count rate at balloon altitude, background reduction algorithms, telescope response to point-like and diffuse sources, and polarization sensitivity calculations; and work on a 10 liter LXe-TPC prototype and gas purification/recovery system.

Aprile, Elena↗