This is proof that a telescope on a balloon exists – this article is from last year, when it successfully landed in the Arctic.  I’ve never heard of this before, actually.

No evidence of a crash this year, yet.   ~ bonnie w ~

 

reply

 

Hi, thanks, it could be on an event to come, and this is the first I have heard of this too.

Brian

Telescope recovery from tundra complete

Last Updated Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:39:06 EDT

CBC News

A balloon-borne telescope designed to probe the birth of stars has been successfully recovered from the Canadian Arctic.

Last week, a 33-storey balloon carried the BLAST telescope from Sweden to Victoria Island in Canada's Arctic archipelago.

Parts of the 2,000 kilogram telescope. (Photo Courtesy Matt Illaszewicz)

The BLAST, or Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope, was taking precise readings of the universe, to investigate the birth of stars and galaxies about 13.5 billion years ago.

• FROM MAY 16, 2005: Balloon-borne telescope touches down successfully in Arctic

Two computers onboard the unmanned telescope recorded the data, which was copied and backed up before being transported south.

"You have to imagine the several years of work and several millions of dollars distilled to just a hard drive and it would be bad if they lost your luggage along the way," says Mark Devlin of the University of Pennsylvania. "So you have to make sure you don't do that.

"We're very careful about that and we'll then disperse to our institutions at the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and Browne University and Penn will all have copies. And we'll look at it and then start co-ordinating the data analysis as soon as people get a chance to rest from the trip."

It took at least 10 helicopter trips to retrieve the balloon and equipment from about 290 kilometres northwest of Cambridge Bay, Devlin said. The helicopter had to refuel during the trips.

NASA plans to charter a cargo plane to fly the 2,000 kilograms of equipment from Cambridge Bay.