Related papers: Testing a Prototype 1U CubeSat on a Stratospheric …
We have initiated the High-Altitude Ballooning programme at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, in the year 2011 with the primary purpose of developing and flying low-cost scientific payloads on a balloon-borne platform. The main…
We have begun a program of high altitude ballooning at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. Recent advances in balloons as well as in electronics have made possible scientific payloads at costs accessible to university…
Balloon experiments are an economically feasible method of conducting observations in astronomy that are not possible from the ground. The astronomical payload may include a telescope, a detector, and a pointing/stabilization system.…
Indian Centre for Space Physics is engaged in long duration balloon borne experiments with typical payloads less than ~ 3kg. Low cost rubber balloons are used. In a double balloon system, the booster balloon lifts the orbiter balloon to its…
Indian Centre for Space Physics is engaged in pioneering balloon borne experiments with typical payloads less than ~ 3.5kg. Low cost rubber balloons are used to fly them to a height of about 40km. In a double balloon system, the booster…
Drones provide a versatile platform for remote sensing and atmospheric studies. However, strict payload mass limits and intense vibrations have proven obstacles to adoption for astronomy. We present a concept for system-level testing of a…
After many years of flying in space primarily for educational purposes, CubeSats - tiny satellites with form factors corresponding to arrangements of "1U" units, or cubes, each 10 cm on a side - have come into their own as valuable…
Exploration of asteroids and small-bodies can provide valuable insight into the origins of the solar system, into the origins of Earth and the origins of the building blocks of life. However, the low-gravity and unknown surface conditions…
Indian Centre for Space Physics is engaged in studying terrestrial and extra-terrestrial high energy phenomena from meteorological balloon borne platforms. A complete payload system with such balloons is at the most about five kilograms of…
CubeSats are small satellites built in standard sizes and form factors, which have been growing in popularity but have thus far been largely ignored within the field of astronomy. When deployed as space-based telescopes, they enable science…
We advocate a low-cost strategy for long-duration research into the 'milligravity' environment of asteroids, comets and small moons, where surface gravity is a vector field typically less than 1/1000 the gravity of Earth. Unlike the…
There are thousands of asteroids in near-Earth space and millions expected in the Main Belt. They are diverse in their physical properties and compositions. They are also time capsules of the early Solar System making them valuable for…
We report suborbital in situ measurements of atmospheric thermodynamic variables and ionizing cosmic radiation obtained during a stratospheric balloon experiment conducted over the Mexican Plateau. The flight reached a maximum geometric…
This paper describes the system design methodology derived from the development and evaluation tests of deployable solar panels to be mounted on a 3U CubeSat. The study mainly includes structural analysis, thermal analysis, and a review of…
Indian Centre for Space Physics has taken a novel strategy to study low energy cosmic rays and astrophysical X-ray sources which involve very light weight payloads up to about five kilograms on board a single or multiple balloons which are…
The Balloon-Borne Cryogenic Telescope Testbed (BOBCAT) is a stratospheric balloon payload to develop technology for a future cryogenic suborbital observatory. A series of flights are intended to establish ultra-light dewar performance and…
The paper presents the design and qualification tests of an airborne experimental setup to determine cosmic ray-flux in the lower stratospheric regions of the earth's atmosphere. The concept of coincidence is implemented to preferentially…
The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 (EUSO-SPB1) was launched in 2017 April from Wanaka, New Zealand. The plan of this mission of opportunity on a NASA super pressure balloon test flight was to circle the…
When the first CubeSats were launched nearly two decades ago, few people believed that the miniature satellites would likely prove to be a useful scientific tool. Skeptics abounded. However, the last decade has seen the highly successful…
Venus is known for its extreme surface temperature and its sulfuric acid clouds. But the cloud layers on Venus have similar temperature and pressure conditions to those on the surface of Earth and are conjectured to be a possible habitat…