Abstract: spaceloon is developing a novel controlled altitude ballooning (CAB) platform to perform BI-directional sampling across multiple atmospheric layers, from the troposphere to the mesosphere

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a $1,299,988 Project Grant under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to Space Balloon Technologies Corp, doing business as Spaceloon. The grant supports the development of Spaceloon's novel Controlled Altitude Ballooning (CAB) platform, which can perform bi-directional sampling across atmospheric layers from the troposphere to the mesosphere. The CAB technology involves a hardware and software combination that enables balloons to alter their size within burst limits, allowing for controlled ascents and descents. The Phase II research will mature the technology to be highly reliable and fully recoverable, with the ability to carry payloads over 3 kg and perform controlled flights up to 50 km. The goal is to create a market-ready operational platform that can significantly improve weather forecast modeling by enabling new climate observing and monitoring capabilities at increased altitudes and frequencies compared to current unidirectional weather observation platforms. The award period is from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2026.

To date, state-of-the-art high-altitude platforms are limited to the stratosphere. National weather service (NWS), twice a day, globally uses unidirectional radiosonde and rawinsonde platforms for recording weather observations, creating a void in atmospheric observations on a daily time scale and at altitude scale. With five times increased observation at two times higher altitudes, CAB will enable new climate observing and monitoring capabilities and dramatically improve forecast modeling. Spaceloons patent-pending CAB technology is a hardware and software combination that alters and controls the balloon size within its burst limits, enabling the balloons expansion and contraction multiple times in a single flight. CAB facilitates controlled ascent and descent throughout the atmosphere from the ground to the mesosphere. As opposed to conventional assumptions, the ascent rate changes with altitude and is correlated with the energy state and power management of the balloon. In phase-i, we achieved cabs control alteration capability for flight ascent profile, collecting atmospheric dynamic and thermodynamic measurements. In phase-II, we will achieve control descent capability with flight recovery and perform mesospheric (>50 KM) test flights. Summary of the anticipated results: the proposed phase-II research will result in a market-ready operational platform for novel measurement capabilities from the ground to the mesosphere above 50 KM. Phase-II activities will build on the laboratory and field testing conducted in phase-i, maturing our technology to be highly reliable and fully recoverable. Toward the end of phaseii, we anticipate CAB carrying a payload of more than 3 KG. In a typical use scenario, the balloon will follow a defined profile during flight transport. The attached payload will collect the atmospheric observations along the flight path, and then completing the profile bring the payload back to the ground. CAB will follow the profile pattern by performing controlled ascent to altitudes of more than 50 KM followed by altitude descent of more than 10 KM in one cycle. We anticipate CAB will perform three such cycles of controlled ascent and descent in a single flight and then, with complete control descent, bring down the attached payload to the ground safely. We anticipate the flights will be fully recoverable and retrievable.