ASTHROS Mission: NASA to use football stadium-sized balloon to study Cosmos

Likely to be launched in December 2023 from Antarctica, ASTHROS will spend about three weeks drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent

NASA has started work on a new mission to send a telescope, on a football stadium-sized balloon, high into the stratosphere to observe wavelengths of light invisible from the Earth. The mission will try to find answers about formation of giant stars in the galaxy.

The telescope mission called Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths (ASTHROS) is likely to be launched in December 2023 from Antarctica. It will spend about three weeks drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent, said the American space agency on Wednesday. 

Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ASTHROS will observe far-infrared light, or light with wavelengths much longer than what is visible to the human eye at an altitude of about 130,000 feet (40 km) roughly four times higher than commercial airliners fly.  The balloon included a telescope, science instruments, and subsystems such as the cooling and electronic systems. Engineers at JPL will begin the integration and testing of those subsystems in August. 

In a statement, NASA said, "Scientific Balloon Program has been operating for 30 years. It launches 10 to 15 missions a year from locations around the globe in support of experiments across all of NASA's science disciplines, as well as for technology development and education purposes. Balloon missions don't only have lower costs compared to space missions, they also have shorter times between early planning and deployment, which means they can accept the higher risks associated with using new or state-of-the-art technologies that haven't yet flown in space." 
An infrared vision in the sky

ASTHROS will carry an instrument to measure the motion and speed of gas around newly-formed stars. During the flight, the mission will study four main targets, including two star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy.  It will also for the first time detect and map the presence of two specific types of nitrogen ions which can reveal places where winds from massive stars and supernova explosions have reshaped the gas clouds. ASTHROS will make the first detailed 3D maps of the density, speed, and motion of gas in these regions to gain insight into how stellar feedback works. Stellar feedback provides information about the formation of a star. 

The team will observe Stellar Feedback on galaxy Messier 83 to gain deeper insight into its effect on different types of galaxies. 

The Carina Nebula, a star-forming region in the Milky Way galaxy, is among four science targets that scientists plan to observe with the ASTHROS high-altitude balloon mission. (Source: NASA, ESA)

A football stadium sized balloon

The balloon carrying ASTHROS when fully inflated with helium will be about 400 feet attached to a gondola that will carry the instrument and the lightweight telescope. Along with the telescope, an 8.4-foot dish antenna as well as a series of mirrors, lenses, and detectors designed and optimized to capture far-infrared light will also be deployed. "During the flight, scientists will be able to precisely control the direction that the telescope points and download the data in real-time using satellite links," NASA added. 

In a order to cool the instruments, NASA will use a cryocooler, which uses electricity (supplied by ASTHROS' solar panels) to keep the superconducting detectors close to minus 268.5 degrees Celsius. 

The James Webb Telescope will be a global premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. (Source: NASA)

NASA expects the balloon will complete two or three loops around the South Pole in about 21 to 28 days, carried by prevailing stratospheric winds. Once the mission is complete, flight termination commands will separate the gondola, and the connected parachute will bring it back to the Earth's surface. 

"We will launch ASTHROS to the edge of space from the most remote and harsh part of our planet," said JPL engineer Jose Siles, project manager for ASTHROS.