The StratoCruiser Propulsive Long Endurance Balloon Gondola, Phase I

Aurora Flight Sciences and Harvard University have proposed the Airborne Stratospheric Climate Coupled Convective Catalytic Chemistry Experiment North America (ASC5ENA) mission to the NASA Earth Venture initiative. The reel-down facility and StratoCruiser are both centric to this study and represent the first path of commercialization for the proposed work. Seeing as there StratoCruiser is a science platform, it has applicability to a wide variety of science missions. The platform's unique mobility and persistence allows new forms of measurements enabling new discoveries. The StratoCruiser will be useful for a broad array of scientific studies dealing with the climate, atmospheric chemistry, weather, land usage, and astronomy. The platform is flexible and can carry a variety of instruments providing scientists with the repositionable and vertical profile capability unmatched by other systems. The drag analysis conducted under this effort and refined in future phases will also provide NASA with greater understanding of balloon drag allowing for more accurate predictions of non-powered balloon drift. Similarly, the composite structure work performed under this effort can readily be infused into other stratospheric balloons to provide greater strength with less structural weight freeing up payload for instruments. The unique capabilities of the StratoCruiser to station keep, relocate, and provide persistence in the presence of winds aloft offer significant utility to the Department of Defense. The system's ability to place a payload over an area for long duration at a reduced cost to an unmanned vehicle flight is clearly applicable to surveillance missions. The reel-down payload capability also offers potential benefit for sensing applications. Aurora plans to pursue the development of a DoD StratoCruiser and plans to compile a white paper for DARPA on the technology. More »