Balloon systems development CONCORDIASI Overview of T-PARC balloon flights Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/PR Concordiasi P M, Toulouse, December 2008
Presentation outline Overview of T-PARC flights Concordiasi Mission Concordiasi progress 2
T-PARC flights overview Vol CNES N Vol PARC N Dritsonde N Lest Lâcher Durée Longitude max (1) remarque 14 1 10 72 19-août ~ 4 jours 158.3 Fuite sensible 15 2 11 72 21-août ~ 5 jours 142 16 3 12 72 22-août ~ 5 jours 136 Arrêt sur demande ATC J 17 4 13 72 24-août ~ 5 jours 150 18 5 16 72 26-août - - Fuite majeure 19 6 17 36 28-août ~ 4 jours 149 20 7 14 36 30-août 4.5 jours 146 Dritsonde en panne 21 8 18 36 01-sept - - déchirure au lâcher, ballon instrumenté 22 9 20 36 03-sept ~ 4 jours 159 23 10 21 36 06-sept ~ 4 jours 147 24 11 22 36 08-sept ~ 4 jours 157.1 panne NSO: blocage automate 26 12 23 ~ 40? 16-sept ~ 5 jours 157.1 27 13 24 ~ 40? 18-sept ~ 5.5 jours 158.4 28 14 25 ~ 40? 20-sept ~ 5 jours 161.9 29 15 26 ~ 40? 22-sept ~ 5 jours 165.4 30 16 27 ~ 40? 23-sept ~ 6 jours 152.6 3
T-PARC flights overview Balloon final positions Drop-soundigs Courtesy of NCAR 4
T-PARC flights overview Flight length as expected (4-5 days) But only partial geographical coverage Due to altitude profile Unexpected daily loss of altitude Induced slow and therefore short trajectories Most likely reason: Air intake during evening natural descent of the balloon Balloon filled progressively with a mixture of helium and air, enriched at every descent with air, Improve the design (geometry) of the exhaust tubes, to make them play properly their stop-valve function 30000 28000 26000 Altitude (m) Correction for future flights: Vol 32 kg 32000 24000 22000 20000 18000 16000 0 86400 172800 259200 345600 432000 518400 604800 duree vol (s) vol DS 20 Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/PR VOL DS 21 Vol DS 14 Vol DS 17 Vol DS 22 Vol DS 23 Vol DS 24 Vol DS 25 Vol DS 26 Vol DS 27 Progress meeting, Toulouse, December 2008 5
T-PARC flights overview Zero Pressure balloon: Very likely air intake through venting ducts Not behaving as stop-valves Courtesy J. Fox 6
Concordiasi Mission specification Open issue: Ozone photometer from U. Colorado, still pending approval by NSF, 18 balloon flights 12 MSD + 6 PSC Organisation: Flight operation center CNES Toulouse Scientific Mission center Météo-France 7
12 MSD flights MSD TSEN + DS Thermodynamic SENsors Driftsonde 50 Dropsondes ~10 m Flight control gondola ISBA TSEN (Air pressure sensor) ~6 m Driftsonde gondola ~1 m ~5 m TSEN (Air temperature sensors) 8
6 PSC flights: 2 of each type Point «O» Reference axis: balloon frame Point «O» X Y Z ~10 m Payload module with 3 combinations of instruments: Flight control gondola NSO-ISBA-RE PSC-1: Ta, Pa, Ozone, Particles Metallic Ballast tank TSEN (Air pressure sensor) Payload Module NCU-ISBA-RE WPC ~5 m ~6 m PSC-2: Ta, Pa, Ozone, GPS Rad.Occ. Profiles PSC-3: Ta, PA, Ozone, Particles LMDOz ~5 m TSEN (Air temperature sensors) 9
Concordiasi Heavy or hazardous hardware already shipped to McMurdo: Balloons, ground means, Pyrotechnical devices Flight trains still under development Development delayed because of poor technical coverage of the 2008 pre-concordiasi campaign, Some delay added when restoring funding and reprogramming from 2008 to 2009, Technical issues: Renewable energy has to be flight proven, Two in flight failures of the main flight system are still under investigation/ correction. including one during T-PARC campaign, 10
Concordiasi Validation through ground test until late January Validation flight tests required: Validation flights from Seychelles Renewable energy, Driftsonde gondola for Concordiasi mission, management of scientific instruments onboard payload module, scientific instruments Up to 2 MSD flights, 1 PSC-1 flight Launch campaign in April from Seychelles Decisive for Concordiasi 11
Concordiasi 12