Development of the NASA Long Duration Balloon Vehicle Original Research Article

The development of the NASA Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) Vehicle is being approached in three parallel paths. The paths are the balloon design, materials development and specification, and balloon fabrication/production technology development. This paper addresses the balloon design with respect to the requirements, approach, design assumptions, and the trade studies performed. The relationships among the various trade variables are presented. A trade space that illustrates the dependencies among the variables is also presented. A candidate balloon design for the ULDB Balloon Vehicle is presented along with potential system enhancements.