The US Space Agency NASA is planning to set a record for the longest flight for a scientific balloon to be launched in New Zealand in April. This Balloon Program team was on the curve particularly in expanding the envelope in high-altitude, heavy-lift ballooning with its super pressure balloon (SPB) technology, an agency statement said.
The balloon is Pumpkin shaped and it covers a football stadium. NASA experts are in the South Island resort town of Wanaka, preparing for the fourth flight of a 532,000-cubic-metre balloon, with the goal of an ultra-long-duration flight of up to 100 days. The current SPB flight duration record is 54 days and was set in 2009.
The balloon was made of almost 8 hectares of polyethylene film and would ascend to a nearly constant float altitude of 33.5 km. The balloon would travel eastward carrying a 1,025 kg payload of tracking, communications, and scientific instruments, and was expected to circumnavigate the globe once every one to three weeks, depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere.
These aspects combined with the relatively low-cost of balloon missions could make the SPB a competitive platform for a number of scientific investigations that would otherwise need to launch into orbit. As the balloon travels around the Earth, it can be seen from the ground particularly at sunrise and sunset.