StratoCruiser Propulsion Module offers unprecedented mobility and measurement capability combining the persistence of balloon platforms for greatly extended observing times, station keeping over the central U.S. in July and August, and recovery of the experiment following the system deployment.
Technologies We Use
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To understand the chemistry of our atmosphere, we need to be able to measure which chemical species are present in what concentrations and how those concentrations vary in space and time.
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The electronics group provides electrical engineering support to flight and lab experiments. This includes determining system requirements, specifying system architectures, designing of custom electronics as necessary, building and testing complete systems and supporting operations in the field.
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We use light as part of the detection system in almost every instrument we build. Light of appropriate frequencies can be used to excite molecules, causing them to fluoresce, or the light may be absorbed, with the depth of the absorption indicating the molecule's concentration.
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Our mechanical group is responsible for the physical design and construction of our field instruments. Instrument designs are taken from conception through design, analysis, fabrication, assembly and integration onto the research platform.
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Our team has worked with Aurora Flight Sciences for the past 24 months in order to prepare their small fleet of DA42 aircraft for scientific research at low altitude.
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The software development group provides broad software support for all projects in the group. This includes support for all of our field instruments, lab instruments and data analysis.