BLAST Telescope About To Launch From Antarctica

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BLAST Telescope About To Launch From Antarctica

Posted by kdawson on Thursday December 21, 2006 @01:40AM from the up-up-and-around dept.

mtruch writes "BLAST, the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope, is about to be launched from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. BLAST is a 2700 kg telescope with a 2 meter primary mirror that hangs from a 1.1 million cubic meter balloon floating at an altitude of 38 km that will study the star formation history of the universe. It will float west at nearly constant latitude for about 14 days until it is (hopefully) located over McMurdo again and will be terminated and recovered. Real time position and flight track is available from the CSBF. Watch the launch live via a crappy webcam link. Three of the graduate students working on the project have photo blogs of much of the prep period, and specifically Don's blog should have launch photos soon (bandwidth to/from McMurdo is at a premium). BLAST made it on Slashdot in the past, when it launched from Sweden in June 2005, and indirectly with an interview with Prof. Barth Netterfield and George Staikos. Yes, the flight computers still run Slack, and yes, we still use kst for data viewing and analysis. There is a Discovery Science show about BLAST and high-altitude balloons, and a future documentary film being made as well."

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editing flaw in the webcam stream... by Corf · 2006-12-21 01:43 · Score: 1

"mms:judgeballoonfacilityorgicevideo" ...crappy webcam link, indeed.

--
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
1. Re:editing flaw in the webcam stream... by ack154 · 2006-12-21 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe it's crappy b/c you have to send an email to receive the image? Then you send another and get the next image? Lather, rinse, repeat?
2. Re:editing flaw in the webcam stream... by Xandu · 2006-12-21 01:53 · Score: 2
  
  Well, the webcam has long been turned off, as the launch was about 12 hours ago. The balloon only takes about 3 hours to get to float (maximum altitude), so it is only a tiny dot the webcam now.
  
  --
  
  --Xandu
Limited bandwidth? by smooth+wombat · 2006-12-21 01:47 · Score: 1

(bandwidth to/from McMurdo is at a premium)

Bah! Never underestimate the bandwidth capacity of a herd of Adelie penguins.

--
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
1. Re:Limited bandwidth? by sid77 · 2006-12-21 01:57 · Score: 1
  
  ...hurtling down the ice pack!
2. Re:Limited bandwidth? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 02:11 · Score: 0
  
  Bah! Never underestimate the bandwidth capacity of a herd of Adelie penguins. ... loaded with quarter-inch tapes.
3. Re:Limited bandwidth? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 03:19 · Score: 0
  
  Re your sig:
  
  I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards. You're a coward. Why would I want to talk to a coward?
  
  That fits in perfectly with the main reason for posting as AC, which is to avoid dumb responses from self-accredited experts. Well done.
4. Re:Limited bandwidth? by chazd1 · 2006-12-21 08:10 · Score: 1
  
  There is limited bandwidth at Mactown. We have 2 T1's for everything. Science takes a lot of Bandwidth. The idea of personal broadband is still a dream here.
  
  From the ice.
Eskimo UFO by Joebert · 2006-12-21 01:56 · Score: 4, Funny

BLAST is a 2700 kg telescope with a 2 meter primary mirror that hangs from a 1.1 million cubic meter balloon floating at an altitude of 38 km
What's the odds we'll see this reported as a UFO story on Unsolved Mysteries in a few years ?

--
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
1. Re:Eskimo UFO by twiddlingbits · 2006-12-21 02:14 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Based on what I have seen (on TV) about the ballon missions from the Antartic float in a circle of 3-400 miles circumfrence about the South Pole. Unless penguins have cell phones and have learned to use them I doubt you'll get UFO reports. Even at 38km high (125000 ft) you wouldn't see it from populated areas (New Zealand being the nearest population center) I'm sure there is a formula for how far away you can see something at 125K feet but I don't feel like googling it today.
2. Re:Eskimo UFO by Joebert · 2006-12-21 02:25 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about cellphones, but didn't the Discovery Channel just do a bit where they attached Video Cameras to some penguins ?
  I suppose it's a longshot of some animal having a camera attached to them being in active duity catching a glimpse of this thing, but, similar circumstances are usually how theese stories come to life.
  
  --
  Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
3. Re:Eskimo UFO by MaGogue · 2006-12-21 03:10 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Uh, for this, you do not need google, but geometry.
  
  If you extend a line from the centre of the Earth C, r=6500km through the baloon B at h=38km, and another line from the centre to the point A, from where it is theoretically still possible to see the baloon, the line BA is tangential to Earth, therefore ABC is a right angle triangle.
  
  Pythagoras gives sqr(|AC|)+sqr(|AB|)=sqr(|BC|), since |AC|=r, |BC|=r+h, and our distance x=|AB|, we have
  
  x=sqrt( (r+h)*(r+h) - r*r)=sqrt( 2*h*r+h*h)
  which because r>>h is approx. sqrt(2*h*r)=sqrt(6500*38*2)=703
  
  So, its about 700 kilometers, not very far from Antarctic continent. I't not visible from Australia or NZ.
4. Re:Eskimo UFO by Xandu · 2006-12-21 03:12 · Score: 1
  
  What's the odds we'll see this reported as a UFO story on Unsolved Mysteries in a few years ?
  
  Well, like already pointed out, not too many people live in Antarctica, so not too many. But these types of balloons are launched relativly often from other locations as well, and some of the time, yes, they are reported as UFOs. When BLAST flew its test flight from Ft. Sumner, NM, it was reported as a UFO in the Santa Fe area after it flew overhead just after dark. The balloon is easy to see in the daytime, but is very small, so hard to notice. Just after dark (on the ground), the balloon is still in the sunlight (since it is so high), and therefore lit up and hard to miss. In fact, this photo was taken by an amateur astronomer (Joe Martz) in Santa Fe of BLAST at float (the same time people were calling it in as a UFO).
  
  --
  
  --Xandu
5. Re:Eskimo UFO by spun · 2006-12-21 03:20 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Ha! That's the plan! You see, aliens have been landing at the south pole for years. This is just a way to throw the conspiracy theorists off the trail. The world must know: penguins are actually super-intelligent aliens from the planet fishstickus. It wasn't humans that overfished our oceans, it was the alien penguins. Now you know the truth!
  
  --
  - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
6. Re:Eskimo UFO by Joebert · 2006-12-21 03:29 · Score: 1
  
  But is it visible to penguin-cam ?
  
  --
  Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
7. Re:Eskimo UFO by Xandu · 2006-12-21 03:53 · Score: 1
  
  Well, let's assume that the penguin is as close as she can get to the balloon, ie directly below it. The balloon is about 40km up, and is about 200m in diameter (give or take), which is about 17 arcminutes. Not huge. Now, let's say the camera on the penguin has a field of view of 50 degrees. It's probably even wider, as you want to see stuff close to and around the penguin, but we'll use 50. If we have a low-res camera, say 1024x768, that gives us 3 arcminutes per pixel, so sure, it'll show up as a blob of a few or so pixels. As for brightness, I know from personal experience that the balloon will be about as bright as the sky, but white instead of blue. So the camera had better be color.
  
  --
  
  --Xandu
8. Re:Eskimo UFO by Joebert · 2006-12-21 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  So does that mean video taken from penguin-cam could mistake this object for a UFO ?
  
  --
  Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
9. Re:Eskimo UFO by twiddlingbits · 2006-12-21 04:08 · Score: 1
  
  Your math assumes the base (surface of the earth) of the triangle is a straight line (i.e flat). The earth curves, so I think your 700 km numbers would be best case. Probably not a significant change from 700km doing it using the curvature of the earth. Just means you can't do it with geometry.
10. Re:Eskimo UFO by Xandu · 2006-12-21 04:09 · Score: 1
  
  So does that mean video taken from penguin-cam could mistake this object for a UFO ?
  
  Maybe. But since BLAST is not moving very fast relative to its distance from the penguin, BLAST will appear to be stationary. Not typical of UFOs, wouldn't you say? It'll look more like a tiny blob of a cloud in the distance on the camera. Barely a speck.
  
  --
  
  --Xandu
11. Re:Eskimo UFO by Joebert · 2006-12-21 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  That's assuming the penguin just stands there though isn't it ?
  
  --
  Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
12. Re:Eskimo UFO by RealGrouchy · 2006-12-21 04:35 · Score: 1
  
  You must be with the government. They always say it's "just a weather balloon".
  
  - RG>
  
  --
  Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
13. Re:Eskimo UFO by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 04:38 · Score: 0
  
  Nah, you're just jealous he can do the math but not you.
14. Re:Eskimo UFO by khallow · 2006-12-21 08:30 · Score: 1
  
  Read it again. He explicitly uses that the Earth is sphere-shaped. The two biggest deviations are that the Earth is actually an oblate spheroid with slightly lower curvature near the poles (which increases the range somewhat) and that he assumes that the observer is at sea level. Having some elevation above sea level will slightly increase the distance as well. Neither effect seems significant to me though.
Re:My wife is a pharmacist... by Rob86TA · 2006-12-21 02:02 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Yes, I did not read the article either

Obviously.... the article is about a balloon with a webcam, in the antarctic, not drug manufacturing.
Flight Computers run... Slackware? by Noryungi · 2006-12-21 02:09 · Score: 1

Yeah! Go Slackware! Call me a fanboy, but this is great!

I just hope the balloon itself is not going to go slack! :-)

--
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
1. Re:Flight Computers run... Slackware? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 02:53 · Score: 0
  
  I just hope 1997 won't call and ask them to give the kernel back...
2. Re:Flight Computers run... Slackware? by Gothmolly · 2006-12-21 03:26 · Score: 1
  
  Ok... "You're a fanboy"
  
  Did that make you happy?
  
  --
  I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
3. Re:Flight Computers run... Slackware? by element-o.p. · 2006-12-21 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  Huh...you would think the Linux distro favored at McMurdo station would be....Gentoo ;)
  
  --
  MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
And in other news... by tlon · 2006-12-21 02:11 · Score: 5, Funny

News Flash: Scientists struggle to explain the polar meltdown occurring at the McMurdo Antarctic base. "We've never seen anything like it" commented Don, one of the researchers serving at McMurdo.

"I posted my pictures to the McMurdo file server, and a few minutes later, the whole thing just started sinking into the ground!" One industry expert attributes the effect to 'The Slashdot Effect'.

Joe L. Expert commented "With bandwidth at McMurdo at a premium, the sudden onslaught of traffic from a posting to the nerd news site Slashdot.org caused a gigantic power spike. The land lines carrying power and data to the McMurdo facility became superconducting in the ultra-cold temperatures there, and some sort of resonance field appears to have formed." L. Expert went on to say "These scientists may have accidentally discovered a new way to start a fusion reaction. Of course, this reaction can only be shut down if slashdot visitors stop hammering the poor server into the ground. If we don't act quickly, the whole southern icecap may melt, flooding the world and destroying civilization as we know it"

Joe Expert was forcibly removed from his office a few minutes later by several men in black suits.
1. Re:And in other news... by meringuoid · 2006-12-21 06:47 · Score: 1
  
  Joe L. Expert commented "With bandwidth at McMurdo at a premium, the sudden onslaught of traffic from a posting to the nerd news site Slashdot.org caused a gigantic power spike. The land lines carrying power and data to the McMurdo facility became superconducting in the ultra-cold temperatures there, and some sort of resonance field appears to have formed."
  Someone notify Dr Katsuragi immediately... looks like the start of something big! Isn't this just what he was predicting?
  
  --
  Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I met this guy. by kjones692 · 2006-12-21 02:14 · Score: 3, Interesting

He gave a lecture at a summer physics program I attended. Really interesting guy, fascinating stuff, but... whatever you do, don't talk to him about the previous BLAST telescope. It also had a two-meter mirror, but this one was made out of glass, (instead of aluminum) cost a million dollars, and shattered on takeoff. He is extremely bitter about this.

Anyways, best of luck to 'em!

--

Love the Third Amendment?
1. Re:I met this guy. by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 02:26 · Score: 0
  
  I was there and when he saw the mirror shattered into pieces, he shouted "blast it!"
2. Re:I met this guy. by Rob+T+Firefly · 2006-12-21 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  Why be bitter? I'd love to be able to honestly say I once destroyed a million dollars' worth of something. Mad scientist pride!!
  
  --
  Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
3. Re:I met this guy. by Xandu · 2006-12-21 03:02 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It also had a two-meter mirror, but this one was made out of glass, (instead of aluminum) cost a million dollars, and shattered on takeoff.
  
  Well, it did have a two-meter mirror, and did cost $1 million. But it was made of carbon-fibre, and did not shatter. Yes, the launch was a little rought, and yes it didn't work perfectly at float, and yes there was damage to it when we recovered. But was that due to takeoff, landing, or both? I'm sure it was a little of both, but how much damage from launch we'll never know.
  
  --
  
  --Xandu
Re:My wife is a pharmacist... by jmagar.com · 2006-12-21 02:23 · Score: 0, Offtopic

FRAK!
Somebody mod me "Imbecile"
Got lost in my tabbed browser...

--
www.jmagar.com
-
crappy paranoid slashcode by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 02:55 · Score: 0

its 2006/7 and this code is still acting like its 1997 and stripping all but http hrefs
i should be able to link mms: rtsp: callto: aim: ed2k: and all manner of differing href protocols, even mySpace has less restrictive policies and thats saying something
Better link. by Xandu · 2006-12-21 03:16 · Score: 4, Informative

Since the webcam is off (and slashdot couldn't link to it anyway), here's a link of a small movie (taken with a small digital camera) of the launch. It's from Don's blog, which covers the entire campaign.

--

--Xandu
1. Re:Better link. by Rorschach1 · 2006-12-21 05:18 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Anyone interested in this sort of thing should also check out sites like ARHAB and EOSS. High-altitude ballooning has gained a lot of popularity in recent years, especially among ham radio hobbyists. It's relatively easy to build a payload that can reach an altitude of over 20 miles. I finally built one myself and launched it last month - it reached an altitude of over 106,000 feet and took over a thousand pictures between takeoff and landing. I posted a writeup on my website.
  Basic payloads like mine don't really contribute much scientific knowledge, but they're a lot of fun and it's a good way to get kids interested in science. It's the closest thing to launching a satellite you're likely to get on a shoestring budget. For the record, my launch probably cost around $400, and everything but the balloon ($65) and helium (about $40) was recovered in reusable condition. Though I'll probably shell out another $8 for a new payload housing - the last one hit a dry lake bed at around 20-30 mph when the 'chute got tangled.
2. Re:Better link. by cyclone96 · 2006-12-22 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  I did the same thing in college over 10 years ago (and by reading your site, it looks like we had the same folks helping us).
  
  I distinctly remember being underneath the payload parachuting down in the countryside after its trip to the edge of space (our base station had gotten quite good at vectoring us to the landing site). When we picked it up, it was still very, very cold.
  
  Pulling the film (no digitals then) camera out of the box, we rushed it to the 1 hour photo place. The pictures were breathtaking, to say the least. How many folks have snapshots showing black sky and the curvature of the earth from 20 miles?
  
  The most amusing part was showing up in a university SUV at some farmer's door to ask permission to go onto the property "uhh, we've got a 25 pound box that parachuted onto your property we need to go get". We were very afraid someone would shoot it, since it made some noise and was covered in antennas.
  
  They continued to refine the balloon projects, and built an entire lab and curriculum around them. While there's no earth shattering science coming out of the projects, the hands on engineering experience with hardware functioning in a real, demanding environment outside of a lab is priceless. Many of the students I worked with went on to careers with NASA and space contractors.
  
  --
  Worst...sig...ever!
What a great summary by isorox · 2006-12-21 03:40 · Score: 1

verbose, loads of links, and well written. I'm very impressed.
about McMurdo by ghostlibrary · 2006-12-21 03:51 · Score: 1

For those curious about McMurdo itself, Big Dead Place is a great resource. After reading it, you can see why they do astronaut simulation work there. As a bonus, the website has movie reviews, all of 'The Thing', with usual real-world commentary like 'In the actual USAP, employees are forbidden flamethrowers.'

--
A.
1. Re:about McMurdo by Bearhouse · 2006-12-21 07:32 · Score: 1
  
  Mod parent up, and read the article: funny!
  
  For ex. "However, to unconditionally bestow respect on scientists is like emptying your wallet for each street musician. And to bestow respect on an agency that funds scientists is like giving your wallet to a bus driver with instructions to give it to a street musician"
Re:Gay Negroes Fund by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 05:29 · Score: 0

How the hell is it that you can produce such a beautiful and well thought out idea one day and then completely spout asinine comments the next?
Is there more than one person using the TrisexualPuppy account?
Re:Gay Negroes Fund by TrisexualPuppy · 2006-12-24 17:01 · Score: 0, Troll

Don't worry. Everything that I post is 100% Boar Shovels.
Why? by d_54321 · 2007-01-04 08:46 · Score: 1

Why is it launching from Antarctica?
I didn't know Antarctica even had a rocket launch pad.

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