SBIR Phase I: Sub-orbital Ballooning System for Low-cost, Instant, and Long-Duration Mesospheric Access for Research, Testing, and Technology Demonstrations

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase-I project is the creation of a new, state-of-the-art, low-cost, semi-automatic. ultra-high-altitude balloon system for suborbital transportation system. The technology seeks to provide routine sub-orbital atmospheric flights for environmental testing of payloads in the ultra-low vacuum of the Mesosphere (260,000 feet).

The technology also seeks to transport metrological payloads, such as radiosondes (that measures pressure, temperature, and relative humidity) and rawinsondes (that evaluate wind speed and direction, temperature, pressure, and relative humidity) at all altitudes from the ground to 260,000 feet for extended periods of time. This capability is especially critical for increasing the success rate of space missions.

The new testing capability may save the space industry hundreds of million dollars in technology failures annually. The transportation of metrological payloads to the upper extremes of the atmosphere for extended periods of time may also provide improved accuracy of weather forecasts.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to solve well-known problems that prevent balloons from taking payloads to the upper atmosphere. This project will develop hardware prototypes, perform software development, and integrate the hardware and software together. The team will perform flight demonstrations to characterize the impact of the Mesospheric environment on the ballooning flight transport and demonstrate the low-cost payload transport to the Mesospheric sub-orbital altitudes for a long duration (> hour).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.