Production year
2017
© Sébastien CHASTANET / CNES / OMP / IRAP / UT3 / CNRS Images
20170104_0039
Deploying the top (triple-parachute) section of a balloon gondola's flight assembly, in preparation for the PILOT, CLIMAT and CARMEN/CASOLBA missions at the Alice Springs facility in Australia. This flight assembly generally consists of the gondola and its payload of scientific instruments, but also a radar transponder, parachutes to enable a controlled landing during the balloon's post-mission descent, and a small auxiliary balloon from which the gondola is suspended pending lift-off. Measurements are more economical and simpler to perform using stratospheric balloons than using satellites. Balloons are able to gather data that would be impossible to collect using ground-based telescopes, as the Earth's atmosphere partially blocks cosmic radiation.
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2017
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