SBIR Phase I:Developing the Microballoon: Precisely-Placeable Stratospheric Balloon

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to address many of the limitations associated with traditional stratospheric balloons that have, to date, prevented the widespread usefulness of this technology for targeted remote sensing applications. Traditional stratospheric balloons are massive and difficult to operate. They are often hundreds of feet tall, weigh thousands of pounds, costs tens of thousands of dollars, must be launched from fixed locations in near-perfect weather, and are always one-time use. These technical, operational, and financial limitations have led to a largely underutilized stratospheric environment. The first proposed research objective for this effort is the design completion of a small, mobile-launch, durable, and fully reusable altitude stable stratospheric balloon. The second research objective is the design and development of advanced balloon flight trajectory software needed to identify acceptable balloon launch sites that yield successful, targeted remote sensing missions. The third objective is the development of a rapid, mobile-launch platform. The project will culminate with a stratospheric flight test campaign that may demonstrate the combined system innovations, measured by the system’s overall ability to image pre-determined target areas of interest at specified times.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to advance stratospheric remote sensing technologies while enabling safe, routine, and commercially-viable Earth observation from a stratospheric balloon platform. The stratosphere is relatively void of commercial remote sensing activity, largely due to the limitations associated with traditional stratospheric balloons. Today, stratospheric balloons are commercially unviable for remote sensing applications due to their inability to image specific areas of Earth at desired times, largely due to constraints associated with the need for fixed launch infrastructure, a lack of system directional control, and narrow operational launch windows requiring restrictive launch weather conditions. The novel stratospheric remote sensing balloon that is the subject of this effort may reduce or eliminate many of these constraints, resulting in a zero-emission, mobile-launch, precisely-placeable stratospheric remote sensing balloon that will enable high-resolution, targeted, low-cost Earth observation. This effort may enhance scientific and technological understanding of small stratospheric balloon systems for remote sensing applications and, most importantly, may enable widespread commercial usefulness of the stratosphere for remote sensing applications including remote, real-time wildfire monitoring and rapid, broad-area disaster response awareness.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.