NASA is being read to launch a balloon at high altitude into the upper atmosphere.
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NASA plans to send an 8.4-foot-tall telescope to the stratosphere aboard a balloon the size of a soccer stadium, the space agency said Thursday. The astro (short for Stratospheric Astrophysical Telescope for high spectral resolution observations at submillimeter wavelengths) will observe wavelengths of light not visible from the ground. It is scheduled to launch in December 2023 from Antarctica, where it will drift over air currents over the continent.
The stars will observe far infrared light, or light with wavelengths that are much longer than is visible to humans. That means you will have to reach an altitude of around 130,000 feet, or 24.6 miles. It is still below the limit of space, but it will be high enough to see the wavelengths of light that are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere, NASA says.
An onboard instrument will measure the movement and velocity of the gas around the newly formed stars. The mission will examine four key targets, including two star-forming regions in the Milky Way. It will also map the presence of two types of nitrogen ions, which can “reveal places where massive star winds and supernova explosions have reshaped gas clouds within these star-forming regions,” NASA said in a statement.
Through a process called stellar feedback, these violent events can disperse surrounding material and prevent or block star formation. On the other hand, stellar feedback can also drive material to clump together, speeding up star formation. The team hopes to learn more about how stellar feedback works and offer new information that will improve computer simulations of the evolution of galaxies.
The team recently completed the design of the observatory’s payload, including its telescope, which captures light, and subsystems such as cooling and electronic systems. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission, will begin integrating and testing those subsystems in early August to ensure they function as intended.
Balloon missions have the advantage of not only costing less than space missions, but the time gap between early planning and deployment is shorter, NASA says. That means balloons can manage the risks of new technologies that have not yet been used in space, including “unknown technical or operational challenges that may affect the scientific output of a mission.” Balloon missions offer the opportunity to overcome those challenges and help future missions make better use of these technologies.
“Balloon missions like Asthros are more risky than space missions, but they produce high rewards at a modest cost,” JPL engineer and project manager Jose Siles said in the statement. “Our goal is to make astrophysical observations that have never been attempted before. The mission will pave the way for future space missions by testing new technologies and providing training for the next generation of engineers and scientists.”
