14/10/2021
On Thursday 14 October, the spectrometer LN-SFTS has experienced its first flight on a light detachable balloon. The instrument has been conceived, built and tested by the CNR-IFN researchers in the framework of the European Hemera programme.
The Hemera research infrastructure is born to implement and organize the scientific activities in the field of balloon flight. The Hemera consortium is led by CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) in France with the participation of 13 different international institutions.
This week the team of researchers responsible for the realization of the LN-SFTS instrument has been at the Aire sur l'Adour CNES balloon launching site to follow the preparation and organization of the flight. Fabio Frassetto, the principal investigator of the LN-SFTS project, says that “I've always thought about the idea of building a lightweight and low noise Fourier spectometer using prisms to disperse light”.
But it was during a poster session of a conference that the idea came into reality. Fabio illustrated its idea to his colleague Lorenzo Cocola and they decided to apply to the Hemera call for proposal.
“The LN-SFTS spectometer has been entirely built and tested in our laboratories in Padova“ says proudly Lorenzo. "Some simulations have been performed to guarantee the complete functionality of the spectrometer during flight, but to be completly sure the instrument underwent some thermal cycles in a company near Vicenza, i.e. Pietro Fiorentini SpA"
The balloon used to fly LN-SFTS is small and light, i.e. a 3-m diameter shroud of latex filled with Helium. The spectometer has been enclosed in a polystyrene box for protection and linked firstly to a parachute and then to the balloon.
During the whole 2-hour flight, the instrument has acquired spectra of the atmosphere to study the abundance of some elements like for example oxygen.
At the height of about 30 km, the balloon has been detached and the parachute allowed for the LN-SFTS soft landing. Thanks to a GPS device installed on the instrument box, it has found and recovered.
The acquired data will be analysed in the following weeks, but the researchers are already thinking for a second flight to be performed next year.
The LN-SFTS spectrometer realization has been funded by the Italian Space Agency (Asi).
Per informazioni:
Fabio Frassetto
Cnr - Istituto di fotonica e nanotecnologie
Via Trasea 7 - 35131 Padova
fabio.frassetto@pd.ifn.cnr.it
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