Transient thermal analysis during the ascent phase of a balloon-borne payload. Comparison with SUNRISE test flight measurements

The thermal design of stratospheric balloon payloads usually focuses on the cruise phase of the missions, that is, the floating altitude conditions. The ascent phase usually takes between 2 and 4 h, a very small period compared to the duration of the whole mission, which can last up to 4 weeks. However, during this phase payloads are subjected to very harsh conditions due mainly to the convective cooling that occurs as the balloon passes through the cold atmosphere, with minimum temperatures in the tropopause. The aim of this work is to study the thermal behaviour of a payload carried by a long duration balloon during the ascent phase. Its temperature has been calculated as a function of the altitude from sea level to floating conditions. To perform this analysis it has been assumed that the thermal interactions (convection and radiation) depend on the altitude, on the environmental conditions (which in turn depend also on the altitude) and on the temperature of the system itself. The results have been compared with the measurements taken during the SUNRISE test flight, launched in October 2007 by CSBF from Fort Sumner (New Mexico).

Separation of the arterial wall from blood contact using hydrogel barriers reduces intimal thickening after balloon injury in the rat: The roles of medial and luminal factors in arterial healing

The objective of this study was to clarify the relative roles of medial versus luminal factors in the induction of thickening of the arterial intima after balloon angioplasty injury. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and thrombin, both associated with thrombosis, and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), stored in the arterial wall, have been implicated in this process. To unequivocally isolate the media from luminally derived factors, we used a 20-μm thick hydrogel barrier that adhered firmly to the arterial wall to block thrombus deposition after balloon-induced injury of the carotid artery of the rat. Thrombosis, bFGF mobilization, medial repopulation, and intimal thickening were measured. Blockade of postinjury arterial contact with blood prevented thrombosis and dramatically inhibited both intimal thickening and endogenous bFGF mobilization. By blocking blood contact on the two time scales of thrombosis and of intimal thickening, and by using local protein release to probe, by reconstitution, the individual roles of PDGF-BB and thrombin, we were able to conclude that a luminally derived factor other than PDGF or thrombin is required for the initiation of cellular events leading to intimal thickening after balloon injury in the rat. We further conclude that a luminally derived factor is required for mobilization of medial bFGF.

Stratospheric radioactivity data obtained by balloon sampling /

Cover title.

Up in the clouds; or, Balloon voyages,

Mode of access: Internet.

A balloon ascension at midnight,

Colophon: Eleven hundred and seventy-five copies of this book on old Stratford deckle-edge paper and thirty copies on imperial Japan vellum have been printed for Elder and Shepard by the Twentieth century press in the year MCMII, and the type distributed.

Crotchets in the air, or, An (un) scientific account of a balloon-trip, in a familiar letter to a friend /

Account of a balloon ascension conducted by Charles Green.

Five weeks in a balloon : or, Journeys and discoveries in Africa by three Englishmen /

Reprint. Originally published: New York, D. Appleton, 1869.

Five weeks in a balloon; or, Journeys and discoveries in Africa, by three Englishmen.

Tr. of: Cinq semaines en ballon.

Organizational, DS, GS, and depot maintenance manual : balloon inflation and lauching device ML-594/U.

"August 1966."

Sheila Morris with ribbons and Valentine balloon, February 1987 (date printed by photo lab on back)

We could probably get sharper focus on another scanner with manual focus adjustment