Data downloaded via parachute from a NASA super-pressure balloon

Abstract

In April to May 2023, the superBIT telescope was lifted to the Earth's stratosphere by a helium-filled super-pressure balloon, to acquire astronomical imaging from above (99.5% of) the Earth's atmosphere. It was launched from New Zealand then, for 40 days, circumnavigated the globe five times at a latitude 40 to 50 degrees South. Attached to the telescope were four 'DRS' (Data Recovery System) capsules containing 5 TB solid state data storage, plus a GNSS receiver, Iridium transmitter, and parachute. Data from the telescope were copied to these, and two were dropped over Argentina. They drifted 61 km horizontally while they descended 32 km, but we predicted their descent vectors within 2.4 km: in this location, the discrepancy appears irreducible below 2 km because of high speed, gusty winds and local topography. The capsules then reported their own locations to within a few metres. We recovered the capsules and successfully retrieved all of superBIT's data - despite the telescope itself being later destroyed on landing.

arXiv comment12 pages

References in corpus (4)

• SPIDER: CMB polarimetry from the edge of space
• Download by Parachute: Retrieval of Assets from High Altitude Balloons
• Weak lensing in the blue: a counter-intuitive strategy for stratospheric observations
• An open source toolkit for the tracking, termination and recovery of high altitude balloon flights and payloads

Cited by in corpus (4)

• SuperBIT Superpressure Flight Instrument Overview and Performance: Near diffraction-limited Astronomical Imaging from the Stratosphere
• The BLAST Observatory: A Sensitivity Study for Far-IR Balloon-borne Polarimeters
• Modeling optical systematics for the Taurus CMB experiment
• Shear Mapping in Python (SMPy): Modular, Extensible, and Accessible Dark Matter Mapping