The Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON) was a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

project involving a stratospheric balloon with science instruments intended to study comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) and other celestial objects.

Construction

The balloon featured an azimuth and attitude stabilized

gondola The gondola (, ; , ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, in a scul ...

carrying an telescope and two instruments on separate optical benches. The

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (or simply Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University ...

contributed the BRRISON

Infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

Camera (BIRC) for detecting water and carbon dioxide at . The

Southwest Research Institute Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is an independent and nonprofit applied research and development (R&D) organization. Founded in 1947 by oil businessman Tom Slick, it provides contract research and deve ...

provided the Ultraviolet-Visible light camera (UVVis) with a fine steering mirror to detect

hydroxyl In chemistry, a hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical formula and composed of one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom. In organic chemistry, alcohols and carboxylic acids contain one or more hydroxy ...

(308 nm) and

cyanogen Cyanogen is the chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula . Its structure is . The simplest stable carbon nitride, it is a Transparency and translucency, colorless and highly toxic gas with a pungency, pungent odor. The molecule is a ...

(385 nm) emissions. To save time, both the telescope and gondola avionics were refurbished from JHU/APL's Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory mission. The BRRISON payload was intended to operate at for up to 22 hours. The mission cost , excluding the balloon and NASA personnel expenses, and progressed from concept to launch pad in ten months.

Mission

While Comet ISON was the primary target, this mission also planned to observe other objects, including comet

2P/Encke Comet Encke , or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS has ...

, Jupiter and its moons, the

Mizar Mizar is a second-magnitude star in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has the Bayer designation ζ Ursae Majoris ( Latinised as Zeta Ursae Majoris). It forms a well-known naked eye d ...

star system, Earth's Moon, and asteroids

10 Hygiea 10 Hygiea is a large asteroid located in the outer main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the tenth known asteroid, discovered on 12 April 1849 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis at the Astronomical Observa ...

and

130 Elektra 130 Elektra is a large outer main-belt asteroid and quadruple system with three minor-planet moons. It was discovered on 17 February 1873, by astronomer Christian Peters at Litchfield Observatory, New York, and named after Electra, an avenger in ...

. Another goal was to measure Earth's atmospheric

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

and

emission Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: ** Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

using BIRC and atmospheric

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...

using UVVis.

Launch

The balloon was launched from the

Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility The Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), established in 1961 and formerly known as the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF), is a NASA facility responsible for providing launch, tracking and control, airspace coordination, telemetr ...

Fort Sumner, New Mexico Fort Sumner is a village in and the county seat of De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,031 at the 2010 U.S. Census, down from the figure of 1,249 recorded in 2000. Fort Sumner is the spring and fall home of the Co ...

, on 28 September 2013 at 18:10 MDT (29 September 2013 at 00:10

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

). However, about two and a half hours after launch, a communication interruption between hardware caused the telescope to return to its stowed position too rapidly, resulting in the stow bar being trapped. Team members worked to fix the problem, but the telescope was unable to be redeployed. The decision was made to keep the balloon afloat until it reached a safe location for mission termination, which occurred on 29 September at 06:04 MDT (12:04 UTC). The gondola and its payload was released under parachute and recovered near

Spur, Texas Spur is a city in Dickens County, Texas, United States. The population was 863 at the 2020 census, down from 1,318 at the 2010 census. A city council resolution passed in July 2014 proclaimed Spur the "nation's first tiny house-friendly town." ...

, in "excellent condition". The hardware may be reused on future balloon missions.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

BRRISON
at NASA Solar System Exploration
''BRRISON: First Planetary Balloon Mission in 50 Years''
document at NASA Solar System Exploration
''BRRISON Mission Archive''
at the NASA Planetary Data System, Small Bodies Node {{Use dmy dates, date=September 2019 NASA programs Balloon-borne telescopes 2013 in science