01 - Aircraft Design and Integrated Systems
AN OVERVIEW OF THE FIRST PARAGUAYAN NEAR-SPACE EXPLORATION USING A HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOON
A. Jara¹, F. Kanazawa¹, L. Vielman, AEP, Paraguay; J. Kurita¹; ¹FPUNA, Paraguay
In the attempt to join the global community on space exploration, by using low-cost scientific payloads on a balloon-borne platform and, as a result of the creation of the Paraguayan Space Agency in 2014, the program EMOÑEPYRUPY (genesis in Guaraní) was created under the initiative of a local academic institution, i.e., Facultad Politécnica at Universidad Nacional de Asunción. The main objective of this program was to promote space related activities, to undergraduate engineering students and, to audience in general. This first activity was conducted under the mission AEP-UNA-GS001. The academic unit leading this mission was the Department of Aeronautics. The payload consisted on, two different global positioning systems, two image capturing devices, a temperature sensor and a pressure transducer for altitude measurement purposes. Similar devices were already utilized for this type of applications such as the one shown in Sreejith A.G., et.al. The total weight of this payload including a radar reflector and a parachute was 8 Newton. The balloon positive lift was measured to 2 Newton. A 600 grams latex balloon was utilized for this mission. This launch was carried out on the clear morning of January 27, 2017, at 7:38 AM local time, 11:38 UTC, on location Latitude/Longitude -5.3571/-57.2567 (Yvytu), San Bernardino, Paraguay. Total flight time was 5 hours approximately. Apogee reached at Latitude/Longitude -25.0/-57.7 approximately, attaining a maximum altitude of 27046 meters from ground at launch point. Impressive images from different altitudes as well as video recordings were captured on this mission. Flight data recordings, i.e., Global Positioning Data, Barometric Pressures and Temperatures, were recovered from memory card installed in the flight data logger. One important finding of this mission was the validation of a Landing Prediction Software, from the Cambridge University Space Flight. This simulation proved to be very accurate in this particular mission.