Trajectory and Performance Models for Earth and Planetary Balloons

Global Aerospace Corporation is developing an innovative, new trajectory and performance tool for Earth and planetary balloons and lighter-than-air (LTA) systems, called Navajo. No software tool like Navajo currently exists. The key innovations of this concept are integrated vertical and horizontal trajectory modeling, application to Earth and planetary balloons and LTA systems, a graphical user interface, and a computer-platform-independent software package. Additional innovations are (a) the decoupling of environment and balloon trajectory models to allow a given balloon design to be flown in any number of environments with different levels of fidelity (b) the integration of safety analysis of Earth balloon flights for in-flight and pre-flight safety calculations, (c) improved fidelity of thermal models, and (d) an extensible application architecture to allow different balloon designs and new environments. Navajo is a new, advanced, and modern simulation and analysis tool to enable the development of new balloon and LTA technologies for Earth and planetary applications.