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Table of Content Brief history of Lighter than Air Applications of stratospheric balloons Design & fabrication of stratospheric balloons Main balloon launch sites in Europe Different types of stratospheric balloons Environment and long duration flights Flight physics of stratospheric balloons Projects of stratospheric airship platforms Concluding remarks 2
Brief History of Lighter Than Air 1783 : First flight using hot air and gas (21 novembre, Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier) 3
Stratospheric balloons vs meteo balloons Meteo balloons with several hundred of grammes Several hundred of kg suspended under stratospheric balloons 4
Earth Atmopshere ZODIAC INTERNATIONAL Flight domain of free balloons 5
Applications of Stratospheric Balloons (1/2) Chemistry of atmosphere 19 km Blue-jets, LNOx? Short-lived species, H2O, ice particles Aerosols? Low Stratosphere Tropical Transition Layer 16 km 1O km Cooling, cirrus, microphysics LNOx, Ozone Tropopause High Troposphère O km 6
Applications of Stratospheric Balloons (2/2) Chemistry of atmosphere: characterization of CH4, H2O, NO2, NO, CO & O3 gases in atmosphere SALOMON SDLA SPIRALE 7
ZODIAC INTERNATIONAL Background on Zodiac Company 1896: Mr. Maurice Mallet created the «Société Française des Ballons Dirigeables» (French society for airship) to develop and sell Airships under the trademark ZODIAC. -8-
Zodiac Space Division in Ayguesvives 1971 1971: Creation of Zodiac Space Divisionto manufacture CNES Stratospheric Balloons in Ayguesvives (FR-31)(~15 km south Toulouse) Paris / Bordeaux Toulouse Airport Albi Ayguesvives premises of Zodiac (2008) Bayonne / Biarritz Andorra Barcelona - 9 -
Production and testing infrastructure (1/4) Clean room for assembly of super pressure balloon 10
Cnes Launch Site in AIRE sur l Adour (south Bordeaux) SSC balloon launching Site at Esrange (Sweedish Space Corporation) Svalbard balloon launching site in Norway Balloon launching site Trapani, Italy 11
Zero Pressure Balloons (BSO) ZODIAC INTERNATIONAL Volume Float altitude Flight duration 3 000 to 1 200 000 m3 20 to 45 Km several hours Suspended mass up to 3 tons Envelope material Polyethylene 12
Zero Pressure Balloons (BSO) ZODIAC INTERNATIONAL Inflation tubes Evacuation tubes: when arriving at float altitude i.e. maximum volume, the exceeding gas corresponding to the free lift is released Small BSO (3SF) fully inflated on ground 13
Infrared Montgolfière (MIR) (1/2) Sous-Direction Ballons - DCT/BL/VP At launch 14
Flight physics of Infrared Montgolfières (MIR) Rebuilding of the MIR altitude variations using flight physics model and the meteorological data. Comparison with actual flight data Bauru Lâcher 15 Février Fin du vol 28 Avril Flight duration: 71 days 15
Super Pressure Stratospheric Balloons (BPS) Diametre 8.50 m to 16 m Float altitude 20 Km (40 hpa to 80 hpa) Flight duration more than 3 months Suspended mass up to 50 kg Envelope material multi-layer polymeric film 16
Stratospheric Platforms: projects Project by LOOKEED MARTIN (US) Project by ROSEAEROSYSTEMS RU) Project by JAXA (JP) Other projects: Sanswire Advanced Technology Group JP Aerospace and others.. 17
Stratospheric Platforms: Applications decreasing level of technical constraints Commercial application such as telecommunication / TV platform Military applications Security (border, coast, sea, volcanoes, fire, ) Emergency situation (to rapidly recover telecom in case of destruction of on ground infrastructure) Scientific application (extension of classical scientific balloon capabilities) 18
Stratospheric Platforms: initiatives in Europe Cluster PEGASE in south of France: Stratoflight European Convention Opportunities and Challenges of stratospheric aircrafts October 20th and 21st 2009 Avignon France The STRATOFLIGHT convention is set to establish the state of the art, and to federate contributors to the definition of a European project on this thematic, to validate the interest of partners and to define a road map for projects of stratospheric mission aircraft or airship demonstrators. 19
Stratospheric Platforms RoadMap: Technology Readiness Level => Public funding is needed to overcome this phase The level of risk of over spending may be acceptable for a «private customer» Extracted from, PP.190-192
Proposed Strategy for Stratospheric Airship Platforms Identification of required / enabling technologies System analysis for the quantification of the impact of uncertainties on those technologies on the feasibility of stratospheric airships => identification of the critical technologies Focusing on these technologies to rise their TRL to a sufficient level (6) w.r.t. their application on stratospheric airship System analysis to evaluate the potential feasibility Definition and development of a demonstrator Feedback and system analysis for evaluation of the feasibility of high altitude airship for selected types of mission => From there, funding of actual airship development by «customer»
Concluding Remarks ZODIAC INTERNATIONAL Stratospheric Balloon & Airship are interesting platforms for scientific application in conditions of Near Space. They can also find their application for security and military applications. In these applications, the requirements of maneuverability and station keeping are very demanding and require that airships be considered rather than free balloons. However, intermediate possibilities such a combining a balloon configuration for launch and recovery and getting some maneuverability at float altitude, may find their place as precursor of stratospheric airships. A coordinated effort aiming at determining the feasibility of airship platforms and rising the maturity of key technologies is required to get a chance of developing such a platform. 22