Flight management during Concordiasi campaign By: Sergio SOSA SESMA, Andre VARGAS, Gérard LETRENNE, Arnaud DERAMECOURT and Martin SPEL (from R-Tech) Acknowledgments: the authors are very grateful to CNRS & IPSL for providing meteorological data during the balloon campaign Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/VP
Summary Logical architecture of ground station Main applications and functions available Somme examples Learning and feedback from last campaigns Developments in progress Conclusions Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 2
Network architecture of ground station Ground station for long durations flight is composed by: 1 ground station based in the launch site 1 ground station based in the control site (Toulouse) 1 internet provider 1 forecaster organism The flight management tool is called Asterisk (A Statistic Tool for Evaluation of RISK). Three process are running simultaneously: Asterisk Data management In charge of managing all data exchange in the control site and with the provider Asterisk Trajectory In charge of making flight simulations Asterisk Atmo In charge of decrypting all forecast data Three computers have Asterisk installed inside but they run it with a different role Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 3
Scheme of network architecture Launch site Iridium C&C Asterisk Web Internet Asterisk Local MTO server Asterisk Provider Storage Scientific community Firewall Iridium C&C Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 4
Somme pictures of grounds stations C&C network Data storage Asterisk network C&C network and local launch site storage Control site Launch site Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 5
Main functionalities and apps Asterisk tool has 3 groups of applications: Simulation apps Data extraction apps Flight configuration and Alarm apps Depending on the user, some apps could be disable if the level of access is not enough Five groups of users have been created in order to keep a good coherence of flight data: Administrator user Access allowed to all system Launch site user Access allowed to functionalities needed for launch Control site user Access allowed to functionalities needed for flight management Scientific user Access allowed to functionalities needed to recover scientific data Public user Access allowed to functionalities needed to kwon the progress of campaign and flight Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 6
Simulation apps A table summarizing all simulations available on the data base A menu for doing simulation from last flight data known A menu for doing launch simulations using the most probably flight configuration A menu for doing descent simulations from the last flight data known A menu for printing the trajectories expected in the case of launch on day D, D+1, D+2 and D+3 Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 7
Data extraction apps A menu for extracting an atmosphere profile anywhere in the flight zone A menu for monitoring the wind speed on the ground in order to estimate population risk A menu for monitoring the population density under flight trajectory in order to estimate population risk Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 8
Flight configuration and alarm apps A menu for modifying flight configuration and alarm limits A table summarizing the state of each flight and alarms related A menu for recovering all science date using a http access Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 9
Flight data summary This information is available on the main tab Flight data can be recovered in GoogleEarth format, CSV format and zip Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 10
Some examples This first example shows the trajectory predicted for the next 10 days. It includes the incertitude ellipses increasing across the time and the evaluation of population density for the first 48h. Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 11
Some examples The second example shows us the evaluation of ground wind speed. We have several forecast times that we need to match to the target trajectory time Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 12
Some examples In this last example we can see a history of balloon state during flight. This kind of information allows us to indentify some non conformities like gas leak, plastic deformation, and others. Points de travail du vol MSD04 Evolution masse de gaz vol MSD03 (pureté du gaz 98%He et 2%O2) Vol MSD04 dp max m_gaz_arch(kg) m_gaz_elas(kg) m_gaz_ideal(kg) 1800 16,5 16,3 1400 16,1 1200 15,9 Masse de gaz (kg) Supression (Pa) 1600 1000 800 15,7 15,5 15,3 600 15,1 400 14,9 200 14,7 0 180 190 200 210 220 230 14,5 14/10/2010 240 Température (K) m_gaz_elas(kg) 24/10/2010 29/10/2010 03/11/2010 08/11/2010 Date et heure TU Evolution masse de gaz du vol MSD06 (pureté du gaz 98%He et 2%O2) m_gaz_arch(kg) 19/10/2010 Volume vol PSC1 m_gaz_ideal(kg) 1200 16 1100 15,8 1000 900 15,4 800 15,2 700 Volume (m3) Masse gaz (kg) 15,6 15 600 500 14,8 400 14,6 300 14,4 200 14,2 100 14 19/09/2010 29/09/2010 09/10/2010 19/10/2010 29/10/2010 08/11/2010 Date et heure TU Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 18/11/2010 28/11/2010 08/12/2010 18/12/2010 0 01/02/2010 11/02/2010 21/02/2010 03/03/2010 13/03/2010 23/03/2010 02/04/2010 12/04/2010 22/04/2010 02/05/2010 12/05/2010 22/05/2010 Date et heure 13
Learning and feedback Since 2008 this kind of flight management have been used for long duration flight for: SCOUT MIR 2008 campaign (3 MIR + 2 BPS) in Seychelles PARC 2008 (17 BSO) in Hawaii Pre-CIASI 2010 (3 BPS) in Seychelles Concordiasi 2010 (19 BPS) in McMurdo During SCOUT-MIR campaign the accuracy of predictions was very poor regarding MIR flight because of share wind stratification (Forecast had difficulties to predict QBO s evolution). Accuracy was better regarding BPS flight due to the constant flight level. During PARC campaign the evaluation of accuracy was done in reanalysis mode after campaign. The results show that trajectories could be well predicted regarding the period and the place of campaign; also that 10ZL balloons aspire air during descent phases (day/night transitions) During Pre-CIASI campaign the QBO inversion was exactly at the same level as flight ceiling. For one flight the accuracy of prediction was very poor, for the two others it was acceptable. During Concordiasi campaign accuracy of prediction was very good and during the first days it allowed us to choose the best day to launch balloons in order to avoid large solar occultation periods Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 14
Developments in progress Internet technology and all the network related to this kind of flight management have shown the interest of having a permanent tool for doing flight simulations and analysis of feasibility. This tool is called GENESA and allows to evaluate the level of feasibility for a project regarding: The mission profile and time expected The compatibility between flight trajectories and flight authorized zone The compatibility with power supply on board Others This tool could be used for all ballooning community (universities, Scientifics labs, CNES, others space agencies, etc.) http://www.genesa.rtech-engineering.com/ Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 15
Main points: Conclusions The balloon flight management tool developed was required to monitor the flight sufficiently ahead of potentially catastrophic situations Difficult to predict the trajectories during QBO turn-around phase because of reduced spatial resolution of the meteo model Difficult to predict altitude (weak coupling with trajectories wind not shared) during PARC 2008 BSO flights. Air/He mixture ratio was not known accurately enough before campaign Good fit between predicted and real trajectory for flight at constant level Applications to future projects: GENESA Long duration and heavy payload BSO flight Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/ 16