NASA's Super-Tiger Balloon Breaks Records While Collecting Data | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.29.24

Airborne-NextGen-04.30.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.01.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers--05.02.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.03.24

Wed, Feb 06, 2013

NASA's Super-Tiger Balloon Breaks Records While Collecting Data

Spent More Than 55 Days Aloft At 127,000 Feet

A large NASA science balloon has broken two flight duration records while flying over Antarctica carrying an instrument that detected 50 million cosmic rays.

The Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Super-TIGER) balloon launched at 1545 EST, Dec. 8 from the Long Duration Balloon site near McMurdo Station. It spent 55 days, 1 hour, and 34 minutes aloft at 127,000 feet, more than four times the altitude of most commercial airliners, and was brought down to end the mission on Friday. Washington University of St. Louis managed the mission.

On Jan. 24, the Super-TIGER team broke the record for longest flight by a balloon of its size, flying for 46 days. The team broke another record Friday after landing by becoming the longest flight of any heavy-lift scientific balloon, including NASA's Long Duration Balloons. The previous record was set in 2009 by NASA's Super Pressure Balloon test flight at 54 days, 1 hour, and 29 minutes.

"Scientific balloons give scientists the ability to gather critical science data for a long duration at a very low relative cost," said Vernon Jones, NASA's Balloon Program Scientist.

Super-TIGER flew a new instrument for measuring rare elements heavier than iron among the flux of high-energy cosmic rays bombarding Earth from elsewhere in our Milky Way galaxy. The information retrieved from this mission will be used to understand where these energetic atomic nuclei are produced and how they achieve their very high energies.

The balloon gathered so much data it will take scientists about two years to analyze it fully.

"This has been a very successful flight because of the long duration, which allowed us to detect large numbers of cosmic rays," said Dr. Bob Binns, principal investigator of the Super-TIGER mission. "The instrument functioned very well."

The balloon was able to stay aloft as long as it did because of prevailing wind patterns at the South Pole. The launch site takes advantage of anticyclonic, or counter-clockwise, winds circulating from east to west in the stratosphere there. This circulation and the sparse population work together to enable long-duration balloon flights at altitudes above 100,000 feet.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs manages the U.S. Antarctic Program and provides logistic support for all U.S. scientific operations in Antarctica. NSF's Antarctic support contractor supports the launch and recovery operations for NASA's Balloon Program in Antarctica. Mission data were downloaded using NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System.

(Image provided by NASA)

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.nsf.gov

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (05.01.24): Say Altitude

Say Altitude Used by ATC to ascertain an aircraft's specific altitude/flight level. When the aircraft is climbing or descending, the pilot should state the indicated altitude round>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.01.24)

Aero Linx: European Air Law Association (EALA) EALA was established in 1988 with the aim to promote the study of European air law and to provide an open forum for those with an int>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Korean War Hero Twice Reborn

From 2023 (YouTube Version): The Life, Death, Life, Death, and Life of a Glorious Warbird In 1981, business-owner Jim Tobul and his father purchased a Chance-Vought F4U Corsair. Mo>[...]

Airborne 04.29.24: EAA B-25 Rides, Textron 2024, G700 Deliveries

Also: USCG Retires MH-65 Dolphins, Irish Aviation Authority, NATCA Warns FAA, Diamond DA42 AD This summer, history enthusiasts will have a unique opportunity to experience World Wa>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 05.02.24: Bobby Bailey, SPRG Report Cards, Skydive!

Also: WACO Kitchen Bails, French SportPlane Mfr to FL, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Innovation Preview Bobby Bailey, a bit of a fixture in sport aviation circles for his work with>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC