Balloon Flights Help Advance Technology to Probe the Evolution of Planets

January 17, 2018

Researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas are using high-altitude balloon flights to probe the crust and interior of the Earth and other planets in order to understand how and why the Earth evolved to be suitable for life, while other planets evolved to have distinctly inhospitable compositions. The High-Altitude Electromagnet Sounding of Earth and Planetary Interiors experiment, measuring electromagnetic waves known as the Schumann Resonances that circle the region between the Earth's ionosphere and just above the planet's surface, will help scientists to determine the temperature inside planets like Venus and how their internal heating works, thus revealing their geological history.

The experiment's success during a balloon flight in October 2017 in Arizona, facilitated by World View and supported by grants from NASA's Flight Opportunities and Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations programs, has brought SwRI closer to its goals. The geologic requirements of the experiment compelled World View to mobilize to a new launch location and develop a unique launch implementation specifically for the flight. The recent flight test was a key step in showing that electromagnetic sounding measurements are feasible at high altitudes, which is necessary due to the scorching surface temperatures of Venus.

Through the Flight Opportunities program, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) selects promising technologies from industry, academia, and government, and provides opportunities for testing and technology demonstration on commercial launch vehicles. The program is managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. STMD is responsible for developing the crosscutting, pioneering new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.

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