The Payloads...

Today I thought I would write a little bit about the payloads we are going to fly this year. 2 of the 3 are actual science experiments, while one is a NASA test flight for a new type of balloon. The 2 science payloads are extremely large, complex and are studying things that I really could even begin to describe with any intelligence. But I will give it a shot, and leave out as much of the boring, dorky science stuff as possible. All of these payloads, after launched will float at about 120,000 feet, circle the South Pole 1-3 times and hopefully remain in the air for 30-45 days.

The first payload we will launch is called the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass experiment (CREAM). It is from a group from the University of Maryland. Basically the experiment measures cosmic rays. From their website, it says the goal of the experiment is to "extend direct measurement of cosmic-ray composition to the energies capable of generating gigantic air showers which have been mainly observed on the ground, thereby providing calibration for indirect measurements". Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but below is a picture of the payload without its solar panels. When fully assembled it will weigh 6000 pounds.

The second payload is called Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) and is from a group from the University of Hawaii. If you thought CREAM was confusing, ANITA is even worse. This one is a radio telescope to detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray neutrinos. The website says, "neutrinos are of great interest to astrophysicist as they are the only particle that can reach earth unattenuated at all energies". Once again, no clue what that means - I just forecast the weather. This payload is huge. It will weigh about 6000 pounds as well. In the picture below, if you want some scale to see how big it is, that is a 6 foot tall ladder in the bottom right corner of the picture.

Our final flight is a test flight for our new Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB). This is a new design of balloon that NASA engineers have designed and basically we need to conduct several test flights before it can be used to support actual flights. The new balloon was designed in hopes of allowing balloons to remain in the air for around 100 days. Right now, they are limited to about half of that. No pictures of this yet because they haven't started building the test payload.

Well, anyway, sorry to bore everyone to death today. Although I know very little about the actual experiments, it is pretty cool to actually be involved in all of this fancy astro-physics and astronomy stuff.