Development of Ultra-Thin Polyethylene Balloons for High Altitude Research upto Mesosphere

[摘要] Ever since its inception four decades back, Balloon Facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad has been functioning with the needs of its user scientists at its focus. During the early nineties, when the X-ray astronomy group at TIFR expressed the need for balloons capable of carrying the X-ray telescopes to altitudes up to 42 km, the balloon group initiated research and development work on indigenous balloon grade films in various thickness not only for the main experiment but also in parallel, took up the development of thin films in thickness range 5 to 6 μm for fabrication of sounding balloons required for probing the stratosphere up to 42 km as the regular 2000-gram rubber balloon ascents could not reach altitudes higher than 38 km. By the year 1999, total indigenization of sounding balloon manufacture was accomplished. The work on balloon grade ultra-thin polyethylene film in thickness range 2.8 to 3.8 μm for fabrication of balloons capable of penetrating mesosphere to meet...

[学科分类] 天文学(综合)

[关键词] Scientific ballooning;ultra-thin balloon film;high altitude ascents (HAA);mesosphere;instrumentation