ASTHROS will be transported in a balloon the size of a football stadium.
To be carried in a balloon the size of a football stadium, ASTHROS uses a state-of-the-art telescope to observe invisible wavelengths of light from the ground.
December 2023 Scheduled to launch in Antarctica in May, ASTHROS (short for Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submimeter-wavelengths) will spend about three weeks in the air.
The ASTHROS project, led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will use infrared lights and wavelength will observe the lights. To do this, ASTHROS would need to reach about four times higher than airplanes.. It needs to be high enough to observe wavelengths of light that are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere.
In early August, engineers at JPL will begin integration and testing of the telescope’s subsystems to verify that the system is working properly.
Although using a balloon in the project seems simple, it offers great cost advantages over NASA’s ground or space-based missions.
NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has been operating at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia for 30 years.. NASA launches 10 to 15 missions per year to support experiments in all science disciplines, as well as for technology development and education. Balloon missions not only have lower costs compared to space missions, but also offer the advantages of early project planning and development.. In this way, they have the risk of using the latest technologies.. These risks can be unknown technical or operational challenges that can affect the course of a mission.. With ASTHROS, we aim to make astrophysical observations that have never been tried before.. The mission will pave the way for future space missions by testing new technologies and training the next generation of engineers and scientists.”
ASTHROS to Study Newborn Stars
ASTHROS will carry an instrument to measure gas movements and velocity around newly formed stars. It will study four regions in the Milky Way galaxy, including the star-forming region. It will also detect and map the presence of two specific nitrogen ions for the first time. These nitrogen ions can detect where winds from massive stars and supernova explosions reshape gas clouds in these star-forming regions. in charge of making maps. They hope to gain insight into how stellar feedback works and to discover new information to improve computer simulations of galaxy evolution.
To perform these tasks, ASTHROS will be attached to a large balloon.. When fully inflated with helium, the balloon will be approximately 150 meters wide and approximately the size of a football stadium.. In addition to the balloon dish antenna, it will carry a light telescope consisting of an array of mirrors, lenses and detectors designed and optimized to capture infrared light.. In flight, scientists will be able to precisely control the direction the telescope is pointing and receive data in real time using satellite links.
JPL, a Pasadena-based division of Caltech, is for the Astrophysics division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Leads the ASTHROS mission. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland is developing marking systems.. 2.5 meter antenna unit Media Lario S.r.l in Italy. Developed by Lecco. NASA’s Science Balloon Program and Columbia Science Balloon Facility will provide balloon and launch services. ASTHROS is supported by the National Science Foundation from McMurdo Station in Antarctica through the US Antarctic Program. Other notable partners include Arizona State University and the University of Miami.