PEGASO: LONG DURATION BALLOONS FROM NORTH POLE

Abstract

In a joint effort, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Andoya Rocket Range (ARR) have initiated the development of a European balloon center in Svalbard, Norway that is an ideal location for performing Long Duration Balloon (LDB) flights. After the identification of the launch location several light balloon flights have been performed since 2003. The 2004 campaign utilized a 10000 m³ balloon produced for the program by Aerostar of Sulfur Springs, Texas USA. This flight lasted 40 days and was an excellent test of the small PEGASO payload, developed (for use in Antarctica) by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) with the PNRA (Progetto Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide) sponsorship. This payload uses an IRIDIUM based bi-directional telemetry system. During summer 2005 two flights have been performed using balloons of the same size. They carried an updated telemetry and a scientific payload which analyzed the magnetic field of the Earth. The Institute of Information Science and Technology (ISTI-CNR) team computed predictions of the balloons trajectories, both before and during flights, as well as statistical evaluations of the seasonal flight windows at the beginning of the ASI LDB program. The 2004 and 2005 missions have been defined to investigate the stratospheric winds structure and they tested the possibility for future heavy LDB flights. The Italian scientific community foresees this kind of missions from 2007-2008 campaigns. Next sections, starting from a general overview of the Italian LDB program, give the description of the Pegaso flights and, in particular, the adopted technical solutions for the on-board and ground-based equipments.