Kimberly Strong Department of Physics, University of Toronto

2007 Toronto Workshop - K. Strong Slide 1

The 2007 Toronto Workshop On Suborbital Science

“COMMUNITY WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE FROM SUBORBITAL VEHICLES

(BALLOONS, AIRCRAFT, ROCKETS)”

Kimberly StrongDepartment of Physics, University of Toronto

Bridging the Gap To Space - Workshop at NCAR26 October 2009


Outline

• Some thoughts on ballooning– Advantages and future directions

• Context for the 2007 Workshop– Canadian ballooning

– MANTRA

• The 2007 Suborbital Workshop– Genesis, objectives, structure

– Ballooning breakout session

– Aircraft breakout session

– Sounding rockets breakout session

• Where next?– CSA’s plans for a follow-on workshop

• Concluding remarks


Why Use Lighter-Than-Air Platforms?

LTA platforms offer excellent opportunities for

• Scientific exploration

– Atmospheric observations looking through the atmosphere

– Astrophysical observations from above the atmosphere

• Technology development

• Testing prototypes of satellite instruments

• Satellite validation

• Training of scientific, engineering, and technical personnel


GAC Report140-76811-01

April 2002

Advantages of Balloons - 1

• Can carry a variety of payloads – ranging from a few kg to several tons

• Can carry a variety of instruments – in situ, sampling, remote sounding

• Can fly at altitudes from near the surface to the upper stratosphere

• Reach float altitudes of 40 km– Near-space conditions, 99% of the

atmosphere is below

– Allow the atmosphere to be probed looking down

– Allow space to be probed looking up

• Provide height-resolved measurements of the atmosphere– Can be made on ascent or from float by scanning in elevation


Advantages of Balloons - 2

• Can be designed for special flights to match requirements– e.g., valve-controlled slow descent, long duration flights, tethered– Can make measurements from several hours to several weeks

• Short timescales - typically 2-5 years from concept to flight

• Allow testing of new instruments with little or no flight heritage

• Balloon payloads are (usually!) recoverable

• Much less expensive than satellite programs

• Many applications– Atmospheric chemistry and dynamics

– Radiation

– Weather and climate

– Astronomy and astrophysics


ULDB at float - www.wff.nasa.gov

Future Directions

• Technical advances– Zero- and super-pressure balloons– Trajectory control– UV-resistant balloon materials– Power systems– Onboard storage– Telemetry (e.g., satellite links)– Pointing system accuracy– Autonomy– Modular payload systems– Launch techniques

• Ultra-long duration balloon flights– for both light and heavy payloads

• Global networks of balloons for long-duration atmospheric observations

• Aerobots - steerable blimps with landing and floating capabilities

• AEROCLIPPER - balloon at 50 m with cable in contact with the surface of the ocean

AEROCLIPPERCNES & www.lmd.ens.fr

GAINS network

ALTAIR-2, U of Wales, Aberystwyth


Some Canadian Ballooning History

• Early efforts were largely led by the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment, the University of Saskatchewan, and the National Research Council

• 1960s - first Canadian balloon-based measurements used infrared spectrometers to study airglow

• 1960 - Noxon and Vallance Jones measured infrared hydroxyl emission from a balloon

• 1962 - Gush and Buijs were the first to detect the 1.27 micron band of O2 in the nightglow using a balloon-borne Michelson interferometer that reached 27,400 m

• 1970s and 1980s - Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada led the Stratoprobe series of balloon flights– included measurements of NO2 and HNO3 that predate the

onset of stratospheric ozone depletion


MANTRAMiddle Atmosphere Nitrogen TRend Assessment

• Balloon mission to study the changing chemical balance of the mid-latitude stratosphere

• Supported by the Canadian Space Agency and the Meteorological Service of Canada (all flights), CRESTech (1998), NSERC (2002, 2004)

• Four late summer campaigns from Vanscoy, Saskatchewan (52N, 107W)


The CampaignsMANTRA 1998• First Canadian launch of large high-altitude balloon in ~15 yrs • Ambitious payload that combined older and newer instruments• 8 flight instruments, 3 ground-based instruments, sondesMANTRA 2000• Engineering test flight of a new pointing control system • 4 flight instruments, 3 ground-based instruments, sondesMANTRA 2002• Large payload - added second FTS and French SAOZ• 9 flight instruments, 4 ground-based instruments, sondesMANTRA 2004• 7-week campaign, two launch attempts, SAOZ-BrO flight• 11 flight instruments, 6 ground-based, 21 sondes• 43 days of ground-based measurements


Workshop Genesis

• Concept emerged from post-MANTRA discussions about the future of scientific ballooning in Canada

• Proposed a two-day workshop to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in July 2006

• CSA welcomed this proposal and agreed to provide support

• Scope: science from suborbital vehicles, particularly balloons, aircraft, and rockets

– Decided to extend it beyond atmospheric science, given common interests in using these platforms

– Relevant to all communities included within the anticipated CSA Small Missions Program

• Held at Environment Canada, Toronto, February 1-2, 2007


Workshop Objectives

• To raise the profile of balloons, aircraft, and rockets as platforms for scientific investigations

• To stimulate discussion of new approaches and new science questions that can be addressed with such platforms

• To determine the level of interest in these flight opportunities in Canada

• To identify the infrastructure needed to enable new missions

• To provide a vision for a “program” with regular flight opportunities

• To enhance and create new collaborations between Canadian universities, government agencies, and industry


Relevance to CSA

Suborbital platforms offer a number of advantages that are closely allied to the mission of the CSA:

• Scientific exploration, including atmospheric science, space science, astronomy, and astrophysics

• Technology development, including testing prototypes of satellite instruments

• Validation of satellite missions, such as those making height-resolved atmospheric measurements

• Training of scientific and technical personnel, who will become the next generation of scientists, including our next generation of Principal Investigators

The Workshop provided input to the CSA’s spring 2007 new Small Missions Program.


Attendance

• 85 registered participants; about 80 of these present– 11 graduate students, 13 PDFs, 7 RAs, 17 professors,

8 from industry, 20 government colleagues

• Universities – Alberta, Calgary, Cambridge (UK), Dalhousie, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics (Germany), Lethbridge, Saskatchewan, Toronto including the Space Flight Laboratory, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France), Waterloo, York

• Industry – ABB Bomem, Bristol Aerospace, COM DEV, Optech, MPB Communications, Resonance, Scientific Instrumentation Ltd, Thoth Technology

• Government – CSA, Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (USA), Communications Research Centre, EC, NRC, NRCan, NASA GSFC (USA), NOAA (USA)


Program Structure

Day 1

• Opening plenary - invited talks by CSA and Env. Canada

• 6 invited talks on science from balloons, aircraft, and rockets

• 11 contributed talks on past projects and case studies

• 2 contributed talks on industrial capabilities and interests

• 8 posters on on past projects and industrial capabilitiesDay 2

• 9 talks on proposals for future projects

• 5 talks by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows: “If I Had a Million Dollars…”.

• Break-out groups on balloons, aircraft, sounding rockets

• Final plenary session with short reports and recommendations from the 3 break-out groups


Ballooning Breakout Session

Topics discussed

• Atmospheric science questions - 17 identified

• Astrophysics science questions - 6 identified

• Major impact of ballooning on training of personnel

• Importance to development and testing of new instruments

• Recent advances in balloon technologies

• Long-duration flight capabilities

• Very high level of interest in balloon flight opportunities

• Opportunities for international collaboration

• Relative merits of maintaining Canadian balloon launch capability versus purchasing launches and piggy-backing

• Infrastructure needed to enable new missions

Discussion Leader: Ben Quine (York University)Reporter: Kaley Walker (University of Toronto)Section Author: Kimberly Strong (University of Toronto)


Atmospheric Science Questions - 1

• How and why is the chemical composition of the atmosphere changing?

• How will changes in atmospheric composition affect stratospheric ozone, climate, and global air quality?

• What is the impact of climate change on future stratospheric ozone depletion, particularly in the Arctic?

• What is the polar stratospheric bromine budget?

• What are the fine-scale microphysical processes that create polar stratospheric clouds?

• What is the impact of forest fires on the global atmosphere?

• What is the vertical and horizontal distribution of water vapour?



• How well can we quantify the Earth’s radiation budget – the balance between downwelling solar radiation and upwelling terrestrial radiation?

• What is the radiative impact of aerosols?

• What is the structure, composition, and transport of high-level aerosols in outflow layers? What are the impacts for chemistry? How can the combination of observations with models help answer these questions?

• What are the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases? – Balloons can be used to sample different scenes, validate

upcoming greenhouse gas satellite missions, provide accurate vertical structure information, and feed these data into improving models.



• How can biomass observations be combined with models to develop and improve vegetation canopy lidar scattering models?

• What is the global distribution of day-time and night-time stratospheric vector wind profiles? (Here, ballooning could contribute to the Chinook/SWIFT mission through validation and correlative measurements.)

• What is the true vertical structure of the atmosphere?

• How can we probe the atmosphere at better vertical resolution than we do now? – For example, on ascent and through improved occultation

and limb scanning – this implies higher temporal resolution, more frequent flights.


Astrophysics Science Questions

• Are there other planets that could support life?

• Is our solar system and our planetary system unique?

• What is the physics that describes the earliest hottest densest time of the universe?

• When did the first stars form?

• Where did the initial matter density fluctuations come from?

• Why is the universe so smooth?


Ballooning Breakout Session

Goals for the next decade• Establishing an active and sustainable ballooning program, with

yearly (or more frequent) flight opportunities• Creating large Canadian-led projects, with international collaborators• Building and maintaining the student experience, giving students and

postdocs as much responsibility as possible• Involving engineers and technicians to provide expertise and

continuity to projects• Contributing to the space program through instrument development

and spin-offs for space science and space technology• Testing most future satellite instruments on balloon platforms, prior

to their deployment in space• Achieving a Canadian long-duration balloon flight capability• Establishing an Arctic launch capability, with the possibility of

circumpolar flights• Building a deployable launch capability that can provide access to

both hemispheres


Ballooning Recommendations I

That the CSA:

(1) Establish and maintain a Canadian-led stably-funded, long-term (10-year) balloon program, with regular flight opportunities, enabling a minimum of two flights per year. – An active, ongoing program supporting several overlapping

balloon projects at different stages would require a budget of at least $1M per year.

(2) Provide a mechanism for funding international opportunities as they arise, facilitating this in a timely manner. – For example, flights of opportunity may well have timelines on

the order of 3 to 6 months. If we are to take advantage of such opportunities, then CSA must be able to review and fund them in a time frame that may be on the order of a few weeks to a few months in advance.


Ballooning Recommendations II

(3) Fund the development of new instrumentation.

(4) Ensure that there is support for balloon flights of both new higher-risk instruments as well as well-proven ones.

(5) Provide strong support for test flights of future satellite instruments on balloon platforms, prior to their deployment in space.

(6) Actively support the involvement of students, postdocs, and younger scientists in ballooning.

(7) Have realistic expectations for the management of large and small projects by university-based investigators.

(8) Undertake multi-agency co-ordination of support for missions, insofar as possible.


Ballooning Recommendations III

(9) Give consideration to leveraging of CFI or other funding in the upcoming Small Payloads Program AO.

(10) Support the community’s efforts to achieve new Canadian capabilities, such as a long-duration balloon flight capability, an Arctic launch capability, and/or a deployable launch capability.

(11) Arrive at an agreement leading to the upgrade or replacement of the launch support infrastructure at Vanscoy, in partnership with Environment Canada.

(12) The Canadian ballooning community reconvene to make a coherent plan with firm recommendations regarding the future of Canadian launch capabilities.


Aircraft Breakout Session

Discussion Leader/Author: Jim Whiteway (York University)Reporter: Michaela Hegglin (University of Toronto)

• Aircraft are best platforms for accessing heights <15 km

• Natural that aircraft be used for instrument development, validation, and advancing the scientific basis for CSA orbital missions to study the lower atmosphere

• Outstanding track record of aircraft research in Canada– Mainly at the Flight Research Laboratory of NRC

– Partnership between EC and NRC for utilization of aircraft for atmospheric research

• Main session theme: to broaden the availability of the NRC aircraft for projects led by scientists at universities for research that is relevant to CSA missions


Aircraft Breakout Session

• Scientific Issues– Upper troposphere and lower stratosphere

• Convection and transport in the tropopause region, cirrus clouds and effects of aircraft exhaust, dynamics in the UTLS

– Tropospheric pollution and transport

– Development of instruments

– Validation of satellite instruments

• Aircraft– NRC CT-33 (to 12.5 km, best for in situ measurements)

– NRC Falcon-20 (to 12.5 km, instruments needing operator)

– Int’l: Egrett, HIAPER, UK Facility for Atmos. Measurements

• Planning: build up the investment in aircraft infrastructure that is available to universities; develop stronger links between the NRC, EC, CSA, and universities


Aircraft Recommendations

That the CSA:

(1) Include aircraft as platforms within the scope of the Small Payloads Program.

(2) Provide funding for the use of aircraft for instrument testing, characterization, and validation. This would include the costs of installation as well as the aircraft operations.

(3) Provide 20% matching funds for applications to the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for aircraft infrastructure. This would include testing and characterization of instruments being developed for CSA missions.


Sounding Rockets Breakout Session I

Discussion Leader/Author: David Knudsen (University of Calgary)Reporter: Johnathan Burchill (NRCan)

• Canadian sounding rocket research began in IGY, with a peak of several launches per year in the mid 1970’s

• Since closure of Churchill Rocket Range in 1984, there have been some launches from foreign ranges, with the exception of one launch from CRR in 1998

• Student involvement has been on the rise since the transfer of the space plasma instrumentation group from the NRC/HIA to the University of Calgary in 1995– Must continue if Canada is to have highly-qualified

instrument scientists to support the long-term space plan

• Only viable platform for studies of the mesosphere, and of the lower ionosphere and thermosphere – Optimally suited to study micro-scale physics up to 1500 km


Sounding Rockets Breakout Session II

Topics discussed• Science questions of interest - 7 identified

• Importance in development and testing of new instruments

• Future: Canada should continue its participation in international collaborations, but must take its turn leading such missions

• Bristol Aerospace has interest and infrastructure for building rocket payloads

• New rocket technologies

• International collaboration are vital - active collaborations with USA and Japan (need timely funding mechanism)

• Advantages of Canadian-led rocket launches– Maintaining Canada’s technical capabilities in rocket payload and vehicle

development

– Allowing Canadian PI’s to determine scientific goals and launch conditions

– Providing opportunities to fly and test unproven, higher-risk designs


Sounding RocketsRecommendations I

That the CSA:

(1) Maintain and enhance Canada’s ability to participate in international collaborations by (i) ensuring sufficiently frequent and regular AOs,

(ii) forming or supporting working groups with both agency-level and scientist-level participation to develop bilateral collaborations in specific disciplines, and (iii) weighing carefully the decision no longer to accept unsolicited proposals, which have been the mainstay of Canadian participation in international space science missions and scientific instrumentation programs for decades,

(2) Fund a Canadian-led sounding rocket every 3-5 years, in collaboration with other national agencies where possible.


Sounding RocketsRecommendations II

(3) Fund participation in foreign-led collaborations at a rate of one every 1-2 years.

(4) Work to increase the number of Canadian groups involved in rocket research by encouraging and enhancing student recruitment and outreach.

(5) Consider rocket-borne testing of instruments destined for orbital missions but having no previous flight heritage.

(6) Encourage collaboration between scientific disciplines within Canada, for example by combining mesospheric and ionospheric experiments in one payload where possible. Partnering with engineering departments should also be considered.


Workshop Vision

“Our overall ten-year vision for suborbital missions is to establish an active and viable small payloads program whose importance in contributing to scientific exploration, instrument development, and training is recognized at CSA and in the wider community. This program would engage Canadian universities, government agencies, and industry, and would consist of regular flight opportunities for all three platforms. It would have the flexibility to support flights of both new and proven instruments, to enable the development and implementation of new technologies and capabilities, thereby leading to greater opportunities for new and exciting scientific missions.”

Workshop Final Report


CSA Upcoming Suborbital Workshop

This is a follow-up to the 2007 Workshop, being organized by

the Canadian Space Agency

The purpose of the workshop will be to provide a context to researchers, research funders and

university administrators to converge on effective and meaningful strategies to develop a Canadian

Capacity Building Program.


Characteristics of Capacity Building with regards to Suborbital realm

1. Hand-on research development in space science & technology2. Training of graduate students, post-docs3. Cost-capped missions4. Rapid end-to-end completion

Suborbital Platforms to include:1. Aircraft,2. Balloons,3. Sounding Rockets4. Nanosatellites

Capacity Building & Suborbital Realm


Based on the 2007 report “Community Workshop on Science from Suborbital Vehicles” the CSA Workshop will :

• Have a focus relevant to space science and technology communities;

• Include science and technology initiatives from suborbital platforms : aircraft, balloons, sounding rockets and nanosatellites for the purpose of

– scientific research,

– technological development,

– training of scientific and technical personnel.

Workshop Description


Exact dates are still to be determined but most likely at the

beginning of 2010 (February)

For more information:Louise Beauchamp

Canadian Space Agency [email protected]

Date


Concluding Remarks

• The 2007 Toronto Workshop strongly recommended an ongoing Small Payloads/Missions Program, with a regular series of AOs capable of simultaneously supporting aircraft, balloon, and sounding rocket missions.

– A reinvigorated Program is critical in building and maintaining expertise in our universities and industry.

• There is a high level of interest in suborbital missions in Canada, as indicated by the excellent Workshop attendance by Canadian university, government, and industrial representatives.

• We await CSA’s next workshop and implementation plans.

• A robust, high-altitude, lighter-than-air science platform offers an exciting new prospect as we move forward.


Workshop Documents

• Homepage

www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/~workshop/

• Program Book (64 pages)

www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/~workshop/CWSSV_final_program.pdf

• Proceedings (583 pages)

www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/~workshop/CWSSV_proceedings.pdf

• Final Report (52 pages)

– Submitted to CSA March 31, 2007

– www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/~workshop/CWSSV_final_report.pdf