NASA will resume its annual long-duration balloon operation in Antarctica by launching two flights in mid-December for planned nine missions to near space.
The Antarctic campaign’s balloon flights will lift off from a camp near the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf to conduct astrophysics, space biology, heliospheric research and upper atmospheric research probes, the space agency said Tuesday.
Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office, noted that carrying out an operation in a remote location was made easier with support from NSF, the New Zealand government and the U.S. Air Force. “Antarctica is our cornerstone location for long-duration balloon missions,” he explained.
Critical NASA Missions in Near Space
For the 2024 campaign, one of NASA’s chief missions is to identify anti-matter particles produced by dark matter interactions that can be observed only in space. Spearheaded by Columbia University in New York, the experiment aims to better understand the dark matter’s unexplored energy regime.
NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility will also conduct the Salter Test Flight Universal mission to test and verify long-duration balloons and subsystems. Within the effort, the agency will support smaller payloads or piggyback missions, such as studying how a fungus called Aspergillus niger adapts to thrive in harsh environments. A deeper knowledge of the fungus could prompt the development of treatments to protect astronauts from high radiation exposure.
Data Gathering Operation
NASA employs zero-pressure balloons in the Antarctic campaign to take advantage of the region’s stable wind conditions, enabling the balloon missions to remain in near space for an extended period to collect massive amounts of scientific data.
