NASA will bring the telescope with a 150-meter balloon to a height of 40 km
The American space agency NASA is working on a mission that will bring a telescope with a diameter of 2.5 meters with a large helium balloon into the stratosphere. The mission should provide insights into the evolution of galaxies.
By placing the telescope in the stratosphere, it can observe wavelengths that are not visible from the ground because they are blocked by the atmosphere. NASA wants to use the telescope to make observations in the infrared spectrum. The mission focuses on research into the movement and speed of gas around newly formed stars.
NASA calls the mission Asthros, which stands for astrophysics stratospheric telescope for high spectral resolution observations at submillimeter-wavelengths. The balloon is scheduled to take off in Antarctica in December 2023. The balloon is then expected to float there on the air currents for about three to four weeks, capturing images of space. After the mission, the telescope is disconnected and returns to Earth with a parachute, so that reuse is possible.
Asthros: helium balloon with a diameter of 150 meters, on which a telescope with a diameter of 2.5 meters hangs.
The team has now completed work on the telescope and instruments for capturing infrared light. The balloon will be equipped with a telescope with a diameter of 2.5 meters, which is approximately the same as the telescope of the Hubble Space Telescope. In early August, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab will begin integrating and testing the systems.
The superconducting detectors for capturing infrared light must be cooled to -268.5ºC. Usually liquid helium is used for this, but Asthros is equipped with an electric cryocooler and solar panels to generate the necessary power. According to NASA, this solution is much lighter than sending a stock of liquid helium upwards. It also extends the life of the mission as it does not depend on the amount of coolant.
NASA chooses a balloon because it is a cheap and fast way to get the telescope up. As a result, more risks can be taken when making hardware choices. For example, the space agency can take equipment that has not been tested in space before, without this having huge consequences if it fails.
The Carina Nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy is one of the areas that the Asthros mission will investigate
With the Asthros mission, NASA wants to create detailed 3D maps of the density, speed and movement of gas that can be seen around the formation of stars. This should yield new insights that can be used to improve computer simulations of the evolution of galaxies. The mission specifically targets four targets, including the Milky Way’s Carina Nebula, Messier 83, or the Southern Windmill Galaxy, and TW Hydrae, a young star some 196 light-years away.
NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has been working on balloon flights at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA for 30 years. Every year, ten to fifteen missions are initiated from there, which are carried out at locations worldwide. This concerns scientific experiments or educational missions.