Developing Technology for Autonomous Control of Solar High-Altitude Balloons (SHABs)

Abstract

Vented Solar High-Altitude Balloons (SHAB-Vs) utilize a lightweight balloon envelope with ideal thermal properties for absorbing direct solar radiation and heating the envelope and internal ambient airt hrough conduction and convection. These balloons therefore do not require a lifting gas to generate lift,and are a simple, inexpensive, passive form of high-altitude balloon flight. Until recently, SHABs have not had venting capabilities and been strictly free floating for high altitude science missions. We design,develop, and evaluate novel hardware, software, and guidance navigation and control (GNC) algorithms for autonomous solar high-altitude balloons (SHABs). The ability to change the altitude of the SHABs can lead to more sophisticated maneuvers in the future such as station-keeping or waypoint trajectory following by leveraging opposing winds at various layers of the atmosphere.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 10, 2023
Accession Number
AD1213134

Entities

People

  • Tristan Schuler

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Algorithms
  • Altimeters
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Guidance
  • High Altitude
  • Inertial Measurement Units
  • Information Operations
  • Information Warfare
  • Military Research
  • Motion Planning
  • Navigation
  • Radiation
  • Simulations
  • Solar Radiation
  • Standards
  • Trajectories

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.