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The Big Bang By Balloon

Posted by samzenpus on from the in-the-beginning dept.

StartsWithABang writes If you want to map the entire sky — whether you're looking in the visible, ultraviolet, infrared or microwave, your best bet is to go to space. Only high above the Earth's atmosphere can you map out the entire sky, with your vision unobscured by anything terrestrial. But that costs millions of dollars for the launch alone! What if you've got new technology you want to test? What if you still want to defeat most of the atmosphere? (Which you need to do, for most wavelengths of light.) And what if you want to make observations on large angular scales, something by-and-large impossible from the ground in microwave wavelengths? You launch a balloon! The Spider telescope has just completed its data-taking operations, and is poised to take the next step — beyond Planck and BICEP2 — in understanding the polarization of the cosmic microwave background.

23 comments

  1. I wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...how being constantly in motion affects image quality. Is it possible there are stabilizers for the cameras that can correct for that enough to amount to more than the atmospheric effect itself?

    1. Re:I wonder... by Gavagai80 · · Score: 0

      Space telescopes are moving at orbital velocities. Compared to that, a balloon is practically stationary.

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    2. Re:I wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really, We are moving very fast around the surface of this sphere. This sphere is moving even faster around that bright glowing sphere. And it moving faster still around the center of the part of the universe.

      To me though the biggest problem is the waste of helium.

    3. Re: I wonder... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      TFA says the experiment uses a reaction wheel (like a gyroscope) to stabilize the payload and point the telescopes azimuthally. It also says the experiment uses the Sun and magnetometers to know where the telescopes are pointing. (It can also use GPS, but that unit failed just after launch.) It is not clear from TFA whether they use adaptive methods to stabilize the images, or just rely on inertia (the payload is heavy) to deal with motion from winds.

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      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    4. Re: I wonder... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      azimuthally

      Saying that word is like a party in my mouth.

         

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      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:I wonder... by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      Then use hydrogen. It's not like you have a person riding in it to lose if it catches fire.

    6. Re:I wonder... by Immerman · · Score: 1

      The problem is not velocity - smooth motion is easy to compensate for, especially when looking at things so far away that your velocity is essentially zero in comparison.

      What's hard to compensate for is chaotic turbulence.

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      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    7. Re: I wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It gives me great pleasure to provide the party in your mouth.

      Same time next week?

  2. Ozone Hole by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 1

    They are launching it from Antarctica because the ozone hole has expanded so much, from certain angles in the right place the atmosphere lets all the radiation in, so they can get the best measurements.

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    Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
    1. Re:Ozone Hole by necro81 · · Score: 3, Informative

      The ozone hole affects UV absorption. Spider operates in the microwave spectrum where ozone (or its absence) does not play a significant effect.

      Water vapor plays a much, much greater role in those wavelengths, and the Antarctic atmosphere is about as good at it gets in that regard.

    2. Re:Ozone Hole by kammermusik · · Score: 1

      Not that I know the particular microwave spectrum of ozone, but it does have a dipole moment, thus it should be susceptible to microwave radiation.

    3. Re:Ozone Hole by geogob · · Score: 4, Informative

      That is correct. Ozone can (and is) measured in microwave spectral bands. For example, the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the AURA satellite retrieves Ozone around 240 GHz. Actually, every Microwave sounder that I know of can measure Ozone, so I have no doubt that Ozone signatures in the upper atmosphere (just as from other trace gases) could affect microwave space observation.

      But it's not the main reason why they fly there I believe. If they want to do long duration flights, everywhere else, they will have to cross large water masses and cross various airspaces. I believe it would be difficult to do the same in the north hemisphere (crossing Russian airspace). Furthermore, in the polar summer, you do not need to worry about day-night cycles, which makes power supply system simpler. If they need sun for power (always the case I guess over a 48h float), a flight in the polar winter cannot work. The only alternative could be equatorial flight, but getting the overflight permits is complex and there are, to my knowledge, no active balloon bases in equatorial/tropical regions these days.

  3. If you want to write an article on medium by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    How can you make it? By asking rhetorical questions, and ending your sentence with bangs! What if your readers already heard of balloons to map the microwaves over a decade ago? Didn't a balloon go up in the skies? We got some partial results before the WMAP probe picture!, improved from the ealier coarse picture made thanks to the earlier space-based COBE! But hold your breath, we're gonna write new articles and they will end up on slashdot! Bang!

    1. Re:If you want to write an article on medium by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      Slashdot. Quickly becoming the PopSci of the geek world. Soylent is often tastier.

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      Silence is a state of mime.
    2. Re:If you want to write an article on medium by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Soylent is often tastier.

      I don't care how good it tastes. I'm not eating anything made of people!

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      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:If you want to write an article on medium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have ourselves another Bennett.

  4. Yay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    more unreadable hipsterspam. This time not even linking the requisite copy/pasted original paper.

  5. Why let it crash? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of the points made in the article is that once the balloon deflates the instrument packages crashes to the ice, making it a one-shot deal. Why? Why not put something as simple as a parachute on it so it lands more softly? Surely at least part of it could be re-used in the next one?

    1. Re:Why let it crash? by necro81 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Another Antarctic balloon experiment, BLAST, was designed for re-usability. On its third flight, the parachute failed to properly detach, and ended up dragging the telescope for more than 100 miles across the ice, mostly destroying it.

      This doesn't mean that one shouldn't try to recover and reuse experiments, but it does present new program-level risks.

      The answer as to "why don't they?" could be as prosaic as: they didn't get funding for a multi-year, multi-launch program, or couldn't squeeze the reusability and refurbishment into their program budget.

      (For those interested, that third mission was the subject of a neat documentary film.)

  6. I don't get it by houghi · · Score: 1

    If people do not like the show, just don't watch it. (What? If I read the what now? I read part of the subject, like everybody else.)

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    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  7. BIT Bang by Baloon by Pascoea · · Score: 1
    Am I only one that read the title as "Bit Bang by Balloon"?

    I had visions of sending serial data by balloon, I get here and it's an article about science... What a crock.

  8. Hey Pussy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Real engineers (like German or French ones) will use H2 instead. And before you say "Hindenburg", change your Tampon.

    This thing is a cheap way to perform interesting observations and you are a naysayer PUSSY.

  9. Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are already Open Sky flights over Russia, so that H2 baloon over Siberia wont change much.