Nasa is preparing to launch a super-pressure balloon about the size of a football stadium to carry a pioneering telescope designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from near space.The super pressure balloon (SPB) test flight is set to be launched from Wanaka Airport in New Zealand, on a potential 100-day journey.<\/p>\n
If weather is conducive for launch, lift-off is scheduled between 8 and 11.30am locally, Nasa said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, the weather at the ground and lower levels looks very good for a launch attempt,\u201d said Gabe Garde, mission manager for the 2017 Wanaka Balloon Campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, we continue to evaluate the forecast stratospheric winds and predicted flight trajectory to ensure conditions are acceptable before launch,\u201d Garde added.<\/p>\n
The purpose of the flight is to test and validate the SPB technology with the goal of long-duration flight at mid-latitudes.<\/p>\n
In addition, the University of Chicago\u2019s Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB) is a mission of opportunity flying on the 2017 SPB test flight.<\/p>\n
EUSO-SPB is designed to detect high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our galaxy as they penetrate the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
As these high-energy particles enter the atmosphere, they interact with nitrogen molecules in the air and create a UV fluorescence light.<\/p>\n
EUSO-SPB will be looking downward at a broad swathe of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere to detect the UV fluorescence from these deep space cosmic rays coming in from above.<\/p>\n
Once launched, the 532,000-cubic-metre balloon will ascend to an operational float altitude of 33.5 kilometres.<\/p>\n
Nasa estimates the balloon will circumnavigate the globe about the southern hemisphere\u2019s mid-latitudes once every one to three weeks, depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere.<\/p>\n
IANS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Picture source: Reuters<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Picture description: An earlier picture of Nasa preparing to launch a super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport on New Zealand’s South Island in 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nasa is preparing to launch a super-pressure balloon about the size of a football stadium to carry a pioneering telescope designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from near space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}