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Frozen Researchers Set Antarctic Ballooning Record
coondoggie writes to mention NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have announced a new record in the history of scientific ballooning in Antarctica. The new record was established by 'launching and operating three long-duration sub-orbital flights simultaneously within a single southern-hemisphere summer'. "The milestone is significant, as it occurs during the height of the International Polar Year (IPY), a coordinated scientific campaign that is utilizing scientists from more than 60 nations. NSF is the lead federal agency for IPY, which began in March 2007 and will continue until 2009 to allow for two full years of observations and field work in parts of the world that are generally uninhabitable for as long as six months each year, researchers said. "
Bigelow Aerospace has had a 3rd scale model flying for a while and is getting ready to go full size with their inflatables.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Launching a balloon through the CSBF is a surprisingly difficult process. Numerous test flights are needed (usually stateside) and actually transporting the payload to the ice is an arduous process. This isn't even mentioning any work that needs to be done on the ice.
The lifetime to get such a project to the ice and launched is on the order of years, barring any major problems.
I thought that the problem was that frost accumulated on the balloon too readily, so it is not as easy as one might think.