Historic 28-day balloon flight provides the first continuous 24/7 aviation radiation monitoring
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. Space Environment Technologies (SET) has completed a historic 28-day stratospheric balloon flight at altitudes between 16-22 km (52,500 – 72,200 ft.). This flight has demonstrated the first continuous 24/7 aviation radiation monitoring capability.
On August 31, 2024, World View Enterprises (WVE) launched its Gryphon2 balloon system from Page, Arizona. The primary payload of the system was the Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) Dual Monitor (DM) system. After traversing the airspace of 12 states in the western half of the United States (California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana), the balloon payload successfully landed on September 27, 2024, in northern Arizona approximately 50 miles east of Page, Arizona, on the Hopi Nation reservation.
The accompanying figures depict the final days of the flight, illustrating high and variable dose rates in silicon (colored dots) exceeding the galactic cosmic ray background (black dots). The flight path for the day preceding descent is depicted in the bottom panel.
The highly successful ARMAS DM mission received substantial funding over a five-year period, in part through NASA’s Flight Opportunities (FO) and Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programs. The mission addressed the following engineering and scientific objectives:
* Demonstrate real-time, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based technology for regional ionizing-radiation monitoring at high altitudes utilizing a long-duration balloon. This objective was partially achieved with a Near Space Launch balloon in February 2021 and fully accomplished with the WVE flight in August-September 2024.
* Develop a groundbreaking technology for enhancing global aviation safety. This objective was realized by identifying a comprehensive strategy to obtain continuous 24/7 radiation measurements, which will be achieved through SET’s ARGOS high altitude long endurance uncrewed aerospace vehicle (HALE UAV).
* Contribute to human space exploration by providing consistent radiation measurements from the surface to high altitudes, addressing both space tourism and avionics safety concerns. This objective was achieved with the ARMAS International Space Station (ISS) Flight Module 9 (FM9) flight from March-December 2022, which was further enhanced by the WVE 2024 flight and the commercialization of ARMAS FM7 on suborbital vehicles commencing in 2019.
* Provide observations for data assimilation into the NASA NAIRAS radiation model, currently being utilized for the ISS radiation safety protocol. This objective was achieved with the ARMAS ISS FM9 flight from March-December 2022, which was further supported by the WVE 2024 flight. Additionally, the commercialization of ARMAS FM7 on suborbital vehicles commenced in 2019.
* Enhance our understanding of the dynamic and variable radiation environment resulting from various sources by measuring both total ionizing dose and gamma-rays. This objective was achieved with the ARMAS ISS FM9 flight from March-December 2022 and through 24 corporate/commercial aircraft conjunctions with the ISS, as well as with four commercial aircraft conjunctions with the WVE flight in 2024.
NASA’s Flight Opportunities program has highlighted this flight.