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20170104_0083

© Sébastien CHASTANET / CNES / OMP / IRAP / UT3 / CNRS Images

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20170104_0083

Préparation des instruments scientifiques de la nacelle CARMEN

Preparing the scientific instruments for the CARMEN gondola at the Alice Springs balloon launch base in Australia. CARMEN (ChARacterisation and Modelling of the Environment) is a gondola designed to carry a modular payload of scientific instruments, suspended from a stratospheric balloon. It eliminates the need to develop dedicated gondolas (designed specifically for a particular instrument and as such, impractical to reuse). CASOLBA was installed in CARMEN for the Austral campaign of April 2017. The CASOLBA (CALibration of SOLar cells for BAlloon flight) mission payload consists of 60 photovoltaic solar cells. The aim of the mission is to calibrate the cells in real-life, quasi-space conditions. The cells will serve as primary calibration standards, from which to produce secondary standards that will in turn be used by manufacturers of solar cells intended for satellites.

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