ELEVATE

The objective of the ELEVATE flight was to perform the first all-night zero pressure balloon flight transporting several instruments onboard. This kind of missions allow commercial companies to perform experiments and test components in near-space conditions for validation and also as an intermediate step on development processes.

One of the payloads was PACKMAN-B, a flight model developed by the Atmospheric Science Group of the Luleå University and framed in the wider PACKMAN project, intended to monitor the type, amount, and energy of the space radiation reaching the lower layers of the atmosphere and the surface on the vicinity of the magnetic north pole, as well as their temporal variability and geographical distribution in the arctic region. In addition, the payload included an air temperature sensor (ATS) similar to those to be mounted on HABIT (one of the instruments selected as part of the scientific payload on the Surface Platform module of ExoMars 2020 mission) with the aim of testing the method to retrieve wind parameters from temperature values which is going to be applied on the red planet. Althought the data was not valuable from a scientific point of view because of the latitude, the flight demonstrated the readiness and robustness of the instrument.

Other unespecified payloads on the flight were components from Altran, from DHV, and a small cubesat from the Spanish startup AisTech. Aditionally, also were tested some new trajectory prediction systems and navigation and communication elements.

Balloon launched on: 7/29/2017
Launch site: Cordoba Airport, Andalucia, Spain  
Balloon launched by: Zero2Infinity
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon  
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 7/30/2017
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 4 h

• HABIT project Atmospheric Science Group, Lulea University of Technology
• PACKMAN - A portable instrument to investigate space weather HardwareX, Volume 9, 2021, e00169
• PACKMAN-Net: A Distributed, Open-Access and Scalable, Network of User-Friendly Space Weather Stations Informatics and Data Analytics (2018)
• Successful 1st trial of PACKMAN-B Atmospheric Science Group, Lulea University of Technology
• Zero 2 Infinity Performs a New Commercial Balloon Flight to Near Space with Four Experiments Onboard Zero2Infinity press release