SALTER TEST FLIGHT

The main purpose of the flight was to perform a technology demonstration to validate several systems developed at the Columbia Balloon Scientific Facility, under supervision of Robert Salter acting as principal investigator. As an additional cargo flown as mission of opportunity were included the following pyggyback payloads:

SPARROW-5 (Sensor Package for Attitude, Rotation, and Relative Observable Winds) is a sensor package capable of measuring the relative wind seen by the gondola during ascent, float, and descent phases of flight. The development is being carried out by the Center Independent Research & Development at NASA Goddard as a key milestone to the development of a balloon trajectory control system for NASA's Super Pressure Balloon.

EMIDSS-5 (Experimental Module for Iterative Design for Satellite Subsystems, version 5) is a cubesat-based technological platform whose main purpose is to test and validate in a near space environment satellite sub-systems to be launched in the near future to the space. It a development by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y del Instituto Politécnico Nacional also from Mexico.

BAS (Balloon Air Sampler) a compact device developed at the Washington University in St. Louis, that automatically captures ~200 cc of air at different altitudes. BAS operates in viscous regime to avoid isotopic and elemental fractionation of volatiles at sampling and it is completely autonomous. The sampling occurs during the balloon's ascent and it is triggered by high accuracy pressure sensors.

CASBa, Comprehensive Avionic System for Balloons) a new module being developed at NASA WFF Balloon Program Office in Wallops, aimed to replace the system originally developed in the 1980s known as CIP (Consolidated Instrument Package) that provides electronic flight support equipment for telemetry, command, and tracking in all NASA balloon missions. The new system will capture, process, and transmit gigabytes rather than the megabytes capacity of the current CIP. It also will be built around commercially supplied computer cores to keep mission costs down while reducing mass.

MaxIQ a student designed payload to obtain different measurements during flight developed by MaxIQ an Space STEMedu program designed to educate and inspire your young scientists and engineers.

Another additional cargo flown as mission of opportunity was the module of the CUBES IN SPACE program: an international educational initiative for students aged 11 to 18 that teaches them how to design STEM -science, technology, engineering and mathematics- experiments and provide a platform to conduct those experiments in near-space. More than 100 experiments were hosted together in a specially built module that was attached to one of the sides of the gondola.

Balloon launched on: 8/22/2024 at 14:49 UTC
Launch site: Scientific Flight Balloon Facility, Fort Sumner, (NM), US  
Balloon launched by: Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon Raven Aerostar 4.000.000 cuft
Flight identification number: 743NT
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 8/22/2024 at 20:30 UTC (L)
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 5 h 30 m
Landing site: 50 km NW of Socorro, New Mexico, US

• NASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico NASA website