| Abstract : | Scientific ballooning provides many opportunities in various science disciplines, especially in space science research with frequent and low-cost experiments. The Balloon Facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Hyderabad, India is unique in the country and the world as it provides complete scientific ballooning support from balloon design to launch, and payload recovery. In the recent past, TIFR Balloon Facility has provided its support to various balloon-borne experiments like Infra-red Astronomy, atmospheric science studies etc., in collaboration with different national and international research institutes. Recently, Balloon Facility has developed different kinds of zero-pressure balloons of volume ranging from 300 m3 to 740000 m3, the development of medium volume aerostats (~103 m3) for carrying heavier payloads up to 1 km height for Wi-Fi communications in rural areas, the development of high strength balloon load tapes of breaking strength of 800 kg with Dyneema yarn, etc. A summary of the various balloon flights conducted in recent years will be discussed and the plans for new developments for ballooning and its support instrumentation will be presented in this talk. |
