Astronomy:BRRISON
The Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON) was a NASA project involving a stratospheric balloon with science instruments intended to study comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) and other celestial objects.
Construction
The balloon featured an azimuth and attitude stabilized gondola carrying an 80-centimeter (31 in) telescope and two instruments on separate optical benches.[1][2] The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory contributed the BRRISON Infrared Camera (BIRC) for detecting water and carbon dioxide at 2.5 to 5 μm.[1][3] The Southwest Research Institute provided the Ultraviolet-Visible light camera (UVVis) with a fine steering mirror to detect hydroxyl (308 nm) and cyanogen (385 nm) emissions.[1][3] To save time, both the telescope and gondola avionics were refurbished from JHU/APL's Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory mission.[4][5] The BRRISON payload was intended to operate at 36,600 meters (120,000 ft) for up to 22 hours.[6] The mission cost US$10.2 million, excluding the balloon and NASA personnel expenses,[4] and progressed from concept to launch pad in ten months.[6]
Mission
While Comet ISON was the primary target, this mission also planned to observe other objects, including comet 2P/Encke, Jupiter and its moons, the Mizar star system, Earth's Moon, and asteroids 10 Hygiea and 130 Elektra.[7] Another goal was to measure Earth's atmospheric transmission and emission using BIRC and atmospheric turbulence using UVVis.[8]
Launch
The balloon was launched from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on 28 September 2013 at 18:10 MDT (29 September 2013 at 00:10 UTC).[5][7] However, about two and a half hours after launch,[9] a communication interruption between hardware caused the telescope to return to its stowed position too rapidly, resulting in the stow bar being trapped.[10] Team members worked to fix the problem, but the telescope was unable to be redeployed.[9] The decision was made to keep the balloon afloat until it reached a safe location for mission termination, which occurred on 29 September at 06:04 MDT (12:04 UTC).[5] The gondola and its payload was released under parachute and recovered near Spur, Texas,[5] in "excellent condition".[11] The hardware may be reused on future balloon missions.[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kremic & Cheng 2014, p. 5.
- ↑ Landis 2013, p. 15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "BRRISON". NASA Planetary Data System Small Body Node. University of Maryland. 20 November 2014. http://pdssbn.astro.umd.edu/data_sb/missions/brrison/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Landis 2013, p. 11.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Pacheco, Luis Eduardo, ed (2014). "BRRISON (Balloon Rapid Response for ISON)". StratoCat. http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/2013/FSU-20130929a.htm.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "NASA's BRRISON Heads West to Prepare to Meet Comet ISON". Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. 6 September 2013. http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/stories/st130906.asp.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brown, Geoffrey (28 September 2013). "BRRISON Soars to Study Comet ISON" (Press release). Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ↑ Cheng et al. 2013, p. 11.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Eggers, Jeremy (29 September 2013). "BRRISON suffers science payload anomaly, unable to collect data". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/content/brrison-suffers-science-payload-anomaly-unable-to-collect-data/.
- ↑ Kremic & Cheng 2014, p. 10.
- ↑ Kremic & Cheng 2014, p. 11.
- ↑ Kremic & Cheng 2014, p. 12.
Bibliography
- Kremic, Tibor; Cheng, Andrew (2014). "Planetary Science from Stratospheric Balloons, BRRISON Mission Overview, and Potential 2014 Re-flight Options". 10th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group. 8–9 January 2014. Washington, D.C.. 09-1100. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/meetings/jan2014/presentations/09_1100_Kremic_Planetary_Balloons_SBAG.pdf.
- Landis, Rob (18 September 2013). "BRRISON Overview". NASA Planetary Science Division. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/smallworlds/docs/BRRISON_Landis_PSD.pdf.
External links
- BRRISON at NASA Solar System Exploration
- BRRISON: First Planetary Balloon Mission in 50 Years, document at NASA Solar System Exploration
- BRRISON Mission Archive at the NASA Planetary Data System, Small Bodies Node
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