The Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), established in 1961 and formerly known as the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF), is a NASA facility responsible for providing launch, tracking and control, airspace coordination, telemetry and command systems, and recovery services for unmanned high-altitude balloons. Customers of the CSBF include NASA centers, universities, and scientific groups from all over the world.
CSBF has a threefold mission:
The Balloon Facility was established by Vincent E. Lally at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado in 1961 under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. It was moved to Palestine, Texas in 1963 and designated as the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF) in January 1973.
In 1982, sponsorship of the NSBF was transferred from the National Science Foundation to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the NSBF became a separate entity under the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).
From October 1987 to January 2015, the CSBF was operated by the Physical Science Laboratory under the auspices of New Mexico State University located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In February 2015, operation of the facility was transferred to the Technical Services Division of Orbital ATK. It is administered by Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility Balloon Program Office.
Its Texas location put the NSBF in the middle of the area where the debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia dropped to Earth on February 1, 2003. In February 2006, the NSBF was renamed the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in honor of the Crew of STS-107.
CSBF conventional and long duration (LDB) balloons are made of 20 micrometer thick polyethylene film, and at float have a diameter of up to 140 meters (460 feet) and a volume of up to 1.12 million m3 (40 million cu ft). The balloons are filled with helium gas, can carry payloads up to 3,600 kilograms (7,900 pounds), fly at altitudes of up to 42 kilometers (26 miles), and can remain at float in excess of 40 days.
The balloons are zero pressure difference balloons, and are vented at the bottom. They are only partially inflated when launched, and as they rise up, the lower atmospheric pressure causes them to fully inflate.
The bottom of the balloon is attached to a parachute, which is then attached by steel suspension cables to the payload. A flight is terminated by firing an explosive squib which separates the parachute from the balloon. A rip line simultaneously tears open the top of the balloon. The balloon quickly deflates and falls to the ground, to be retrieved and disposed of (balloons are single use). The payload descends, suspended by the parachute, and is recovered by the ground crew.
Conventional payloads typically have a float duration at altitude of 72+ hours. Long Duration Ballooning payloads float at durations of 42+ days. Ultra long duration balloons (ULDB) are being developed which can operate at float for +100 days. The limiting factor is the diurnal cycle of the sun, rising and setting. Heat during the day causes the balloon to expand and gain altitude, thereby losing helium. Heat loss at night causes the balloon to sink and contract. Ballast is carried to overcome the effect. Flying in a polar region during full sunlight allows more negligible altitude variations.
ULDB balloons or superpressure balloons (SPB) are sealed to prevent helium loss and have a pumpkin shape at flight altitude. [1] The SPB TRAVALB-2 surpassed previous Antarctic balloon flights by staying aloft for 149 days, 3 hours, and 58 minutes after launch from the NASA Long Duration Balloon (LDB) site at LDB Camp, McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The operation was supported by National Science Foundation and United States Antarctic Program. [2] After the Travalb-1 launch abort, the Travalb-2 lifted off on 29 December 2019 to test NASA balloon trajectory predictions in Antarctica and to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. [3]
A balloon flight involves both the CSBF and a scientific team(s). The CSBF determines the launch site based on scientific goals, and provides local preparation facilities, a balloon(s), launch and recovery vehicles, and personnel to support the logistical aspects of pre flight, flight, and post flight activities. Scientific teams ship a payload to the launch site, and set up a small field station to assemble their equipment, make last-minute preparations, and manage the experiment during flight. The payload is typically a large instrument or cluster of instruments, plus onboard computers, radio telemetry equipment, and ballast.
Launching a balloon requires the conjunction of light low-level winds (to comply with the limitations of the CSBF dynamic launch technique) and suitable upper-level winds (so the balloon remains within telemetry range of a ground station, and within the permitted flight region). The payload may be rolled out to the launch area several times before surface and upper atmosphere conditions are acceptable for launch.
During the flight, data is transmitted to the ground for quick-look analysis, and is usually recorded on board as well. Scientists on the ground usually actively control the payload. An astronomical telescope, for example, can be real time directed toward a variety of sources for observations, or left in an autonomous mode of operation.
CSBF launches balloons from several sites in the world, depending on the needs of the experiment they carry. Sites include:
Since 2017, CSBF has been designated as the Backup Control Center (BCC) for the International Space Station's Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston, TX. Approximately 3 hours from Houston, CSBF provides facilities that NASA can utilize for short-term control of the ISS in case MCC is evacuated. The BCC was temporarily activated in August 2020 while the Johnson Space Center prepared for Hurricane Laura. [4]
An aerobot is an aerial robot, usually used in the context of an unmanned space probe or unmanned aerial vehicle.
NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF, was a cylindrical facility designed to provide long-term experimental data on the outer space environment and its effects on space systems, materials, operations and selected spores' survival. It was placed in low Earth orbit by Space ShuttleChallenger in April 1984. The original plan called for the LDEF to be retrieved in March 1985, but after a series of delays it was eventually returned to Earth by Columbia in January 1990.
In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner.
Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other Federal agencies. WFF includes an extensively instrumented range to support launches of more than a dozen types of sounding rockets; small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets; high-altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research; and, using its Research Airport, flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
High-altitude balloons or stratostats are usually uncrewed balloons typically filled with helium or hydrogen and released into the stratosphere, generally attaining between 18 and 37 km above sea level. In 2013, a balloon named BS 13-08 reached a record altitude of 53.7 km.
A gas balloon is a balloon that rises and floats in the air because it is filled with a gas lighter than air. When not in flight, it is tethered to prevent it from flying away and is sealed at the bottom to prevent the escape of gas. A gas balloon may also be called a Charlière for its inventor, the Frenchman Jacques Charles. Today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small latex party balloons. For nearly 200 years, well into the 20th century, manned balloon flight utilized gas balloons before hot-air balloons became dominant. Without power, heat or fuel, untethered flights of gas balloons depended on the skill of the pilot. Gas balloons have greater lift for a given volume, so they do not need to be so large, and they can stay up for much longer than hot air balloons.
Arcas was the designation of an American sounding rocket, developed by the Atlantic Research Corp., Alexandria, Va.
A superpressure balloon (SPB) is a style of aerostatic balloon where the volume of the balloon is kept relatively constant in the face of changes in ambient pressure outside the balloon, and the temperature of the contained lifting gas. This allows the balloon to keep a stable altitude for long periods. This is in contrast with much more common variable-volume balloons, which are either only partially filled with lifting gas, or made with more elastic materials. Also referred to as pumpkin or ultra long distance balloons (ULDB) balloons, the sealed balloon envelopes have a pumpkin shape at flight altitude.
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) is a submillimeter telescope that hangs from a high-altitude balloon. It has a 2-meter primary mirror that directs light into bolometer arrays operating at 250, 350, and 500 μm. These arrays were developed for the SPIRE instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory. The project is carried out by a multi-university consortium headed by the University of Pennsylvania and which also includes University of Toronto, Brown University, the University of Miami, the University of British Columbia, JPL, INAOE, and Cardiff University. The third flight of BLAST in Antarctica was a scientific success, but much of telescope was destroyed after landing. It has been rebuilt for a flight from Antarctica in the 2010-11 austral summer. This most recent flight of BLAST has a polarimeter to observe the polarized light from star forming cores. The light is polarized due to magnetic fields. It is thought that the magnetic fields inhibit the collapse of the cores. The Herschel Space Observatory does not have a polarimeter.
Taber MacCallum is the co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, a human spaceflight company planning to take people and payloads to the edge of space by balloon, and the former chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF). He is co-founder and former CTO of World View Enterprises, a stratospheric balloon company using its un-crewed Stratollite for remote communications and sensing. MacCallum was also a founding member of the Biosphere 2 design team and a crew member from the original two-year mission inside the materially-closed ecological system.
Spider is a balloon-borne experiment designed to search for primordial gravitational waves imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Measuring the strength of this signal puts limits on inflationary theory.
The E and B Experiment (EBEX) will measure the cosmic microwave background radiation of a part of the sky during two sub-orbital (high-altitude) balloon flights. It is an experiment to make large, high-fidelity images of the CMB polarization anisotropies. By using a telescope which flies at over 42,000 metres high, it is possible to reduce the atmospheric absorption of microwaves to a minimum. This allows massive cost reduction compared to a satellite probe, though only a small part of the sky can be scanned and for shorter duration than a typical satellite mission such as WMAP.
Balloon Experiments with Amateur Radio (BEAR) is a series of Canadian-based amateur radio high-altitude balloon experiments by a group of amateur radio operators and experimenters from Sherwood Park and Edmonton, Alberta. The experiments started in the year 2000 and continued with BEAR-9 in 2012 reaching 36,010 metres (118,140 ft).
Fort Sumner Municipal Airport is a village owned, public use airport located two nautical miles (4 km) northeast of the central business district of Fort Sumner, a village in De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation airport.
The Mobile Rocket Base, abbreviated MORABA, is a department of the DLR Space Operations and Astronaut Training in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. Since the 1960s, the MORABA has performed scientific high altitude research missions with unmanned rockets and balloons, and has developed the required mechanical and electrical systems. Their operational areas include upper atmosphere research, microgravity research, astronomy, geophysics, materials science, as well as hypersonic research.
World View Enterprises, Inc., doing business as World View, is a private American near space exploration and technology company headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, founded with the goal of increasing access to and the utilization of the stratosphere for scientific, commercial, economic, and military purposes.
Zero 2 Infinity is a private Spanish company developing high-altitude balloons intended to provide access to near space and low Earth orbit using a balloon-borne pod and a balloon-borne launcher.
Exposing Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (E-MIST) is a NASA study to determine if a specific microorganism could survive conditions like those on the planet Mars. The study transported Bacillus pumilus bacteria and their spores by helium-filled balloon to the stratosphere of Earth and monitored the ability of the microorganisms to survive in extreme Martian-like conditions such as low pressure, dryness, cold, and ionizing radiation.
The GUSTO mission is a high-altitude balloon mission that carries an infrared telescope to measure fine-structure line emission from the interstellar medium. The mission was developed by NASA's Explorers Program, and was launched in December 2023 from Antarctica.
The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a highly stabilized, high-resolution telescope that operates in the stratosphere via NASA's superpressure balloon (SPB) system. At 40 km altitude above sea level, the football-stadium-sized balloon carries SuperBIT to a suborbital environment above 99.2% of the Earth's atmosphere in order to obtain space-quality imaging. As a research instrument, SuperBIT's primary science goal is to provide insight into the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters and throughout the large-scale structure of the universe. As demonstrated by numerous test flights, the survey data generated by SuperBIT is expected to have similar quality and data collection efficiency as the Hubble Space Telescope while complementing surveys from other up-and-coming observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
