BESS (Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer)

BESS (Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer) was a joint project of Japanese and US scientists to search for antimatter in the cosmic radiation, as well as measure energy and intensity of less exotic components of the cosmic radiation.

The BESS program had 9 successful flight campaigns since 1993. The instrument has been modified and improved each year.

Historically, the various versions of the BESS instrument have consisted of large solenoidal thin-wall superconducting magnet, a time-of-flight system of scintillation counter hodoscopes, inner drift chambers (IDC), a jet-type drift particle-tracking chamber and an aerogel Cherenkov counter (which replaced outer drift chambers used in the first flights). All the components are arranged in a horizontal cylindrical configuration with the IDC and Jet chambers located inside the warm bore of the magnet.

Balloon launched on: 7/28/1997 at 3:29 utc
Launch site: Lynn Lake Airport, Manitoba, Canada  
Balloon launched by: National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon Raven 28X - 800.000 m3
Balloon serial number: W29.47-2X-22
Flight identification number: 437N
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 6/29/1997 at 4:43 utc
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 26 h
Landing site: 5 miles NW of Dixonville, Alberta, Canadá
Payload weight: 6500 lbs

• Measurements of 0.2 to 20 GeV/n cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 1997 through 2002 with the BESS spectrometer Submitted to Astroparticle Physics
• NASA Balloon Flights (1989-1998) in NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. VII: NASA Launch Systems, Space Transportation, Human Spaceflight, and Space Science, 1989-1998
• Old BESS website University of Maryland