NASA is preparing to start their experiment dubbed GUSTO, which is short for Galactic / Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory. The project will be used to gather data that will be utilized for the Milky Way Galaxy's 3D map.
GUSTO To 3D Map Milky Way Galaxy
The GUSTO experiment will use a telescope to collect high-frequency radio waves percolating through the cosmic interstellar medium, the term for the gases, dust, radiation, and other materials that make up the space between stars. The telescope will float 120,000 feet over Antarctica on a high-altitude balloon for at least 55 days. The zero-pressure and super-pressure balloons that NASA utilizes for such missions are described in a fascinating guide to the agency's scientific balloons.
GUSTO will search the interstellar medium for signals of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen to learn more about how stars and planets develop, specifically what causes space particles to combine to form the molecular clouds that precede star formation. NASA is eyeing to launch the balloon GUSTO from the Antarctic McMurdo Station launchpad "no earlier than December 21."
Chris Walker of the University of Arizona, the project's investigative head, claims that GUSTO is specially designed to detect the terahertz frequencies that the particles emit.
"We basically have this radio system that we built that we can turn the knob and tune to the frequency of those lines," he said in NASA's announcement. "If we hear something, we know it's them. We know it's those atoms and molecules."
NASA says the mission will also "reveal the 3D structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud," a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way that's visible with the naked eye from parts of the Earth's southern hemisphere. The telescope will fly in the South Pole's atmospheric anticyclone, guiding it in circles around the pole during the mission.
NASA Has Been Using Balloons
It's not the first time NASA has utilized balloons for various space missions. The U.S. Space Agency also used a balloon-based telescope, the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT), to photograph and collect data from colliding galaxies and the distribution of dark matter. Unfortunately, SuperBIT sustained severe damage after spending 40 days gathering data.
Luckily, earlier in the day, they had successfully parachuted down to the Patagonia region of Argentina with two data recovery systems, preserving over 200 gigabytes of SuperBIT observations. One of the problems balloon-based telescopes encounter is reliable data retrieval. Usually, these telescopes transmit data to nearby ground stations or satellites.
After working on SuperBIT as a doctorate student at Massey, Ellen Sirks, a research associate at the University of Sydney, claims that the data-retrieval mechanism that stores the data comprises common components.
The electronics are an SD card with five terabytes of storage and a tiny Raspberry Pi computer. With the help of mechanical pincers meant for skilled archers, they fastened it to the telescope.
They chose it because they had a high threshold for stress. The storage device is permanently connected to the telescope's onboard computer through an Ethernet connection. Sirk says, "the simplest things are sometimes the best solutions."
When the astronomers are ready, the Raspberry Pi gets a notice to begin the release procedure. Thirty seconds later, it falls off the telescope and starts to descend. The Pi glides down to Earth like a parachute, opening to halt its fall. By using a balloon instead of launching a telescope into orbit, the researchers could undertake design iterations and improve their data-recovery technique at a lesser cost.
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