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Frozen Researchers Set Antarctic Ballooning Record

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hope-you-like-penguins dept.

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. "

8 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Blagofaire by Ryukotsusei · · Score: 5, Funny

    Was Cory Doctorow on one of the balloons?

  2. Re:Orbit by flyingfsck · · Score: 2, Informative

    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!
  3. Re:come on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  4. Frost post by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 2, Informative

    I thought that the problem was that frost accumulated on the balloon too readily, so it is not as easy as one might think.

  5. IceCREAM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    From TFA

    The key payloads this winter were: The University of Maryland's Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) payload which was launched on Dec. 19 I'll bet many a bad joke came out of that.

    Scientist 1:"Hey, we have the Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass in Antarctica. Its ice-CREAM!"

    Scientist 2: "Shut the hell up, Bob."
  6. "Frozen"? "Researchers?" by DynaSoar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The launch crew was working in full summer daylight, temperatures between 20 and 33 F.
    The telemetry team is in Palestine Texas. Actually the night temperatures there were about the same as Antarctica the last couple days. The researchers, though, are at their respective institutions. No researchers were frozen during the making of TFA.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
    1. Re:"Frozen"? "Researchers?" by tpheiska · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That would be between about 0 to -7 C for the rest of the world.
      HTH. HAND.

      --
      "wahts woring iwth my tyoping?"
  7. Quart in a pint pot by 6Yankee · · Score: 2, Funny

    International Polar Year (IPY) [...] began in March 2007 and will continue until 2009

    Is this another of those NASA metric thingies?