A globe for astronomical experiments record permanence

2009/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Teknologia
• Astrofisika

A balloon launched by NASA on December 28 has spent more than 42 days in Antarctica. In fact, the previous record was 42 days, so they have shown they can survive. This balloon is for testing and they intend to land soon, but actually balloons for astronomical experiments want to last 100 days.

In fact, these balloons are much cheaper than satellites and can carry the same instrumentation as themselves to investigate not only the atmosphere but also space. They are special compared to conventional balloons, as they are prepared to avoid height variations depending on the temperature. For this purpose, the balloons have a kind of straps to control the volume during the heating of the gas. Thus, the balloon that is now being tested is at 33,800 meters of altitude, with only 700 meters of altitude.