8 August 2000

ALTADENA, CA - Global Aerospace Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a $600,000 NASA contract to begin the second phase of its StratoSail(R) balloon flight path control system. The contract is for building and testing a prototype of the StratoSail(R) Ballon Guidance System that may be used to control the direction of travel on one of NASA's Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) missions. Currently the NASA stratospheric balloons simply drift with the wind. The StratoSail(R) system will help the balloon maintain a preplanned flight path.

The StratoSail(R) flight path control technology can be used to divert balloon flights around uncooperative countries and dangerous weather systems, or even for interplanetary missions such as steering balloons on Venus or Titan. The StratoSail(R) system will reduce launch and landing complexities by allowing more control over the balloon's direction of flight, and will increase the success of payload recovery. Additionally, this system will allow more control over scientific missions.

The innovation being developed by Global Aerospace Corporation utilizes a rudder type system to react against the different wind streams in the atmosphere. A wing is suspended on a long tether 15 km (9.3 mi) below the balloon. The wing generates a lift force that can be controlled to nudge the balloon system in the desired direction. The balloons of the NASA ULDB Project are designed to fly at an altitude of 35 km (21.7 mi). The StratoSail(R) trajectory control device would be located 15 km below the balloon at an altitude of 20 km (12.4 mi), which is above most aircraft.

The StratoSail(R) system applies only a slight amount of sideways control force, yet this is enough to significantly influence the balloon's trajectory. By controlling the latitude of the balloon as it drifts around the world, it is possible to return the balloon to its launch site. This will increase the chance of recovering the balloon's scientific instrumentation package and allow the possibility of reusing it. Payload recovery can represent a savings of several million dollars per mission to NASA. A single recovered payload (that might otherwise have been lost) could offset much of the development cost of the StratoSail(R) system.

Advanced StratoSail(R) systems are being developed that can control global constellations of balloons. This network of balloons could be used for difficult low power telemetry operations such as whale tracking. The following figure shows the first generation StratoSail(R) Ballon Guidance System flying over a hurricane.

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