Airships: A New Horizon for Science
Abstract
The "Airships: A New Horizon for Science" study at the Keck Institute for Space Studies investigated the potential of a variety of airships currently operable or under development to serve as observatories and science instrumentation platforms for a range of space, atmospheric, and Earth science. The participants represent a diverse cross-section of the aerospace sector, NASA, and academia. Over the last two decades, there has been wide interest in developing a high altitude, stratospheric lighter-than-air (LTA) airship that could maneuver and remain in a desired geographic position (i.e., "station-keeping") for weeks, months or even years. Our study found considerable scientific value in both low altitude (< 40 kft) and high altitude (> 60 kft) airships across a wide spectrum of space, atmospheric, and Earth science programs. Over the course of the study period, we identified stratospheric tethered aerostats as a viable alternative to airships where station-keeping was valued over maneuverability. By opening up the sky and Earth's stratospheric horizon in affordable ways with long-term flexibility, airships allow us to push technology and science forward in a project-rich environment that complements existing space observatories as well as aircraft and high-altitude balloon missions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1402.6706,
title = {Airships: A New Horizon for Science},
author = {Sarah H. Miller and Robert Fesen and Lynne Hillenbrand and Jason Rhodes and Gil Baird and Geoffrey Blake and Jeff Booth and David E. Carlile and Riley Duren and Frederick G. Edworthy and Brent Freeze and Randall R. Friedl and Paul F. Goldsmith and Jeffery L. Hall and Scott E. Hoffman and Scott E. Hovarter and Rebecca M. Jensen-Clem and Ross M. Jones and Jens Kauffmann and Alina Kiessling and Oliver G. King and Nick Konidaris and Timothy L. Lachenmeier and Steven D. Lord and Jessica Neu and Gregory R. Quetin and Alan Ram and Stanley Sander and Marc Simard and Mike Smith and Steve Smith and Sara Smoot and Sara Susca and Abigail Swann and Eliot F. Young and Thomas Zambrano},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.6706},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
This low resolution version of the report is 8.6 MB. For the high resolution version see: http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/airship/