Particle Astrophysics ANITA Collaboration Meeting UC-Irvine November 24-25, Ballooning Issues Jim Beatty Penn State

Particle Astrophysics ANITA Collaboration Meeting UC-Irvine November 24-25, Why they call it ballooning. When I started doing this, I was a lot thinner…

Particle Astrophysics ANITA Collaboration Meeting UC-Irvine November 24-25, Some observations… The waiting is the hardest part… Launch is sometimes a bit violent. Landing is almost always violent. When something goes wrong, the two often occur in rapid succession! Plan for rapid recycling of the payload after an aborted flight.

Particle Astrophysics ANITA Collaboration Meeting UC-Irvine November 24-25, Flight Train A rotator provided by WFF does coarse solar pointing for all panels (NSBF uses separate power from us). We can suspend a second antenna cluster: –Above the payload in the cable ladder (preferred). –Below the payload using a reel-down mechanism. For the ladder option, we need to make sure the antennas are high above the ground when the flight train is in tension to prevent damage on balloon release. –This implies a rough weight limit of ~100 lbs. (negotiable) We need to decide on this since a design will need to be qualified. –Things like this have been done before.

Particle Astrophysics ANITA Collaboration Meeting UC-Irvine November 24-25, LDB RF Sources TDRSS Transponder (X-band (6-10 GHz)) Iridium (1680 MHz) Argos (401 MHz) Command Receiver (429 MHz) Inmarsat ( MHz) Onboard Computers (wideband)  We will need to do an RF background survey of the LDB support systems, and may need to help NSBF quiet interference sources.

Particle Astrophysics ANITA Collaboration Meeting UC-Irvine November 24-25, LDB Integration Process A conventional test flight is presently required for all LDB payloads –This is a good idea! –We may want to limit exposure of expensive components (e.g. number of antennas flown) –If we want an exemption we might be able to argue for one on the basis of payload cost. Integration and testing with NSBF systems at Palestine is required in the northern summer preceding the flight –Flight readiness review occurs before shipping Changes to the payload are severely limited after LDB integration.