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T H E B I G S PA C E
B A L LO O N
? ? SPACE BALLOON? ???????????????????????????????????
gas is released to avoid bursting ground by the deflated balloon
the balloon envelope, after 2 or 3
envelope and hopefully allows
day-night cycles the balloon will
you to more accurately determine
have released all of its ballast and
the landing site.
will have lost a certain amount of
lifting gas, so will begin to loose
The super pressure balloons
its useful altitude, ( certain scien- are designed to stay afloat for
tific missions are based on being
much longer than zero pressure
at defined altitudes ).
balloons, potentially up to several
A panel is then cut open in
the balloon fabric, usually done
by electrically heating an-embed-
weeks giving you much more
flight time per balloon launch.
Super pressure balloons work
ded wire, to release enough gas by being designed to with-stand
to descend the balloon, at around the additional pressure created
5,000 feet the capsule is released from being heated by solar radiafrom the balloon to descend using
tion, avoiding the need to release
a separate parachute, this avoids
any lifting gas and carry an ballast,
the payload being dragged on the
the super pressure balloon does
ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014
loose some altitude during the
night-time cycle when the lifting
gas cools, but will climb again
once heated by the sun during
the daylight cycle.
I’m keen to use the super pressure design as it offers the potential of a much longer flight time,
possibly allowing the balloon
to fly for several weeks, but if
this proves to be to difficult, we
may use the zero pressure type
balloon.
The main technical challenge
with super pressure designs are
that the balloon envelope needs
to be strong enough to withstand