| Name: | Nagendra Neerudu |
| Affiliation: | Balloon Facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research |
| Conference ID: | ASI2025_174 |
| Title: | Scientific Ballooning in India: Recent Activities and Developments at TIFR Balloon Facility |
| Authors: | N. Nagendra1, G. Stalin Peter1, T. V. Rao1, D. K. Ojha1,2 |
| Authors Affiliation: | 1 N. Nagendra, G. Stalin Peter, T. V. Rao, D. K. Ojha Balloon Facility, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad -500062, India
2 D. K. Ojha Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai -400005, India |
| Mode of Presentation: | Oral |
| Abstract Category: | Facilities, Technologies and Data science |
| Abstract: | Scientific ballooning provides numerous opportunities in many science disciplines, particularly in Astronomy, Atmospheric Sciences, and Space Science research at a very low cost. The Balloon Facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR-BF) is unique in the country and it can provide complete solutions for balloon-borne experiments by custom-designing various types of balloons with volumes ranging from 300 cu.m to 740000 cu.m for carrying 20 - 1000 kg payloads to an altitude of 18 - 42 km. Balloon-borne experiments are more focused and allow researchers/scientists to quickly change over to new technology developments and their tests in a shorter duration. These large-volume plastic/scientific balloons are floated at their intended altitudes with heavy scientific instruments for a few hours, depending on the prevailing wind conditions. The TIFR-BF has developed small polyethylene specially shaped balloons such as spheres and oblate spheroids for supporting the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC)-ISRO for testing the satellite communication payloads in a controllable environment as well as other deployable modules of Chandrayaan missions. Recently, TIFR-BF provided launch and payload recovery support to various balloon campaigns in collaboration with national and international research institutes. The TIFR-BF also conducted a balloon-borne Far-Infrared astronomy experiment with a payload weight of 850 kg, which floated at 32 km altitude for approximately 6 hours. In this talk, various kinds of balloons available at the TIFR-BF for user scientists, recent balloon experiments conducted for astronomy, and atmospheric sciences, and support provided to satellite payload testing, etc., will be discussed. |
