Stratospherical Balloons as a Platform for Microgravity Experimentation
- Paper number
IAC-06-A2.4.07
- Author
Mr. Jorge Lassig, Comahue National University, Argentina
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Within the denominated Ground Based Infrastructures to create microgravity, it is used the capacity to elevate a capsule by means of balloons so that they reach great altitude (stratosphere), and to be thrown from there, in free fall. The Argentinean Laboratory of Microgravity, located at the National University of the Comahue, designed and built a capsule to carry out experiments in microgravity by means of balloons capable to ascend until a height of 25 Kms. As a function of the launching height, and the weight and drag coefficient (Cd) of the capsule, it is possible to achieve from 10 up to 20 seconds of microgravity at a level from 10-1G up to 10-4G. During the last South Hemisphere summer, the first launching was conducted, in which were carried out two experiments: (1) solidification of an alloy of Sn-Pb inside a cylindrical container, (2) determination of the freezing point of the water in two cylindrical containers of different slenderness. In the first experiment, in the sample obtained under microgravity, much more globular structures are observed than in samples obtained under normal gravity. In the second experiment, the freezing point temperature of the samples was below zero degrees Centigrade. In this work, the characteristics of the experiments and their results are reported, and likewise, the conditions to make possible this type of Ground Based Infrastructures: meteorology of the flight, communications and telemetry system, and payload’s search and rescue systems.
- Abstract document