Anzac poppy launched from Wanaka
A $1.6 million super-pressure balloon that was visible from Christchurch yesterday shortly after starting its journey around the world has a humble paper poppy tucked into equipment that sends science data back to Earth.
Nasa communications spokesman Jeremy Eggers said the Anzac poppy was tucked next to the balloon’s iridium, used to uplink or downlink data from the payload.
Nasa and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility successfully launched the football stadium-sized, heavy-lift super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport at 10.50am yesterday, Anzac Day.
The mission is designed to run 100 or more days, floating at 33.5 kilometres over the globe in the Southern Hemisphere’s mid-latitude band.
If Nasa has the weather forecasts correct, the balloon should circumnavigate the world once every five to 15 days.
The Nasa team wants to break a 54-day flight record for a super-pressure balloon.
The previous two flights from Wanaka ended early.
In 2015, the balloon sprung a leak on its 33rd day and landed in the Australian outback.
Last year, the balloon flight ended in Peru after 46 days.
The main objective is to validate the balloon technology, but it is carrying a cosmic ray telescope as a science ‘‘mission of opportunity’’ for the International Extreme Universe Space Observatory.
The telescope will be used to detect ultra-high energy cosmic rays from beyond the galaxy as they penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere.
The project’s lead scientist, Professor Angela Olinto, said the telescope was searching for the cosmic particles.
‘‘The origin of these particles is a great mystery that our pioneering mission will help to solve.
‘‘Do they come from massive black holes at the centre of galaxies? Tiny, fastspinning pulsars?
‘‘Or somewhere else?’’