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NASA Payload to Monitor Atmosphere During Solo Spirit Balloon Flight Around the World

Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington,DC                   December 8, 1997
(Phone:  202/358-1753)

Mary Hardin/Diane Ainsworth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 
(Phone:  818/354-5011)

Tony Fitzpatrick
Washington University, St. Louis, MO
(Phone:  314/935-5230)

RELEASE:  97-280

NASA PAYLOAD TO MONITOR ATMOSPHERE DURING 
SOLO SPIRIT BALLOON FLIGHT AROUND THE WORLD

     A NASA science instrument package that may one day study 
the atmosphere of Mars or Venus will fly aboard 
adventurer/businessman Steve Fossett's Solo Spirit balloon in 
December, as he makes his second attempt to be the first 
person to fly solo around the world.

     The prototype instrumentation is being provided by 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.  The 
7.5-pound package will measure the balloon's latitude, 
longitude and elevation, and the surrounding atmospheric 
temperature, pressure, humidity and vertical wind velocity.  
The scientific data and knowledge gained from the flight will 
be used by Earth scientists under the sponsorship of NASA's 
Office of Mission to Planet Earth enterprise.

     Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, 
the mission control center for Fossett's attempt, invited JPL 
to fly the scientific payload.

     "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is actively developing 
a program to fly balloons in the atmospheres of other 
planets.  We are very excited with this opportunity to test 
this payload in Earth's atmosphere, and are looking forward 
to data that could be applied to our future missions," said 
Dr. Jonathan M. Cameron, the payload team leader at JPL.

     The science payload will gather information from the 
troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, during a 
continuous, two-week period as the balloon flies through the 
mid-northern latitudes.  Fossett's balloon is expected to fly 
at an average altitude of about 23,000 feet.

     JPL will receive raw data from the payload telemetry 
system through a commercial satellite.  These data will be 
converted into scientific measurements and relayed to 
Washington University, where they will be posted on a Web 
site so the public can follow the flight.

     Eventually, a version of the NASA prototype may fly in 
the atmosphere of Mars or Venus, on a robotic balloon called 
an aerobot.  Like Fossett's balloon, the aerobot would vary 
its altitude to steer through the atmosphere.

     "This experiment will simulate a planetary mission with 
an aerobot payload mounted on a balloon," said Dr. Raymond E. 
Arvidson, professor and chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences 
at Washington University, and the science coordinator for the 
payload.  "In addition, the observations to be made during 
Solo Spirit's flight offer an outstanding opportunity to 
educate the public on the characteristics and dynamics of the 
lower atmosphere."

     A low fuel supply and other problems ended Fossett's 
earlier solo flight attempt on Jan. 20, 1997, although he set 
a new balloon distance record at 10,360 miles (16,700 
kilometers.)

     Fossett will again launch from St. Louis's Busch Stadium 
when flying conditions are optimal.  This winter's flight is 
expected to last 15 days.  The launch window opens in mid-
December and closes at the end of January 1998.

     "This circumnavigation of the Earth by Solar Spirit will 
provide valuable experience to JPL in carrying out planetary 
aerobot missions," said Dr. James A. Cutts, manager of JPL's 
special projects office.  "We will soon have the 
technological capability to carry out aerobot missions to 
circumnavigate both Mars and Venus that will collect unique 
scientific observations to complement the information 
obtained by orbiting spacecraft and surface vehicles."

     After Fossett's flight, Washington University will 
publish all of the science data on NASA's Planetary Data 
System Geosciences Node, housed at the university and 
available on the Internet.

     To follow Fossett's flight, visit:  
http://www.wustl.edu/solo/

     To learn more about JPL's aerobot program, visit:
          http://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/aerobot/

     The scientific payload is managed by JPL, a division of 
the California Institute of Technology, for NASA's Office of 
Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC.  This office directs 
a long-term science research program to study the Earth's 
land, air, oceans, ice and life as a total environmental 
system.

                         -end-