The Ultra Long Duration Balloon Project Original Research Article

The USA NASA Balloon Program research and development (R&D) efforts have focused on the development of technologies to support increased capability balloon missions. Advances made in analytical structural/performance modeling and lightweight composite materials offered the promise of superpressure balloons capable of extended flight duration. In 1997 a project was approved to develop and demonstrate a new capability to support balloon missions lasting up to 100 days above 33.5 kms. The development project, called the Ultra Long Duration Balloon Project (ULDB), will conclude with a demonstration flight in the year 2000. The ULDB Project consists of four major systems: Vehicle and Recovery, Ballooncraft, Mission and Operations, and the Science Instrument. Major challenges include the balloon material, balloon fabrication, power, cryogenic refrigeration, thermal control, attitude control, telecommunications and data storage, and international overflight. An overview of ULDB Project (Smith, et al, 1998) will be presented.