NASA’s New Observation Platform Provides High-Altitude Precision for Space Instruments

High-altitude scientific balloons have previously been the most common tool for carrying telescopes into the stratosphere in order to give scientists a better look at their targets, specifically Earth, sun and stars. A new method of target viewing has been established for those who wish to track planetary targets.

The pointing system is called the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP) and was designed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. It provides scientists with a high stability system for accurately pointing their balloon-borne instruments to track planetary targets.

"Arc-second pointing is unbelievably precise," said David Stuchlik, the WASP project manager, in this NASA news release. "Some compare it to the ability to find and track an object that is the diameter of a dime from two miles away."

The system has been tested in 2011, 2012, and most recently in 2013. In the test conducted this past September, a 30-story-balloon lifted a test unit of the HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) above the Earth's atmosphere at about 122,000 feet. Wallops Arc Second Pointer was then properly and accurately able to point HySICS so that it could measure Earth, the sun, and the moon. HySICS' creator plans to prepare another flight this coming September because of the great success and accuracy provided by the WASP.

WASP's design also features the capability of supporting many science payloads through the use of its highly flexible and standardized system. Scientists are no longer handcuffed into developing their own pointing systems to help guide their instruments beyond the Earth's atmosphere. This is expected to improve instrument development, which will hopefully provide scientists with more accurate and groundbreaking information.

The Wallops Arc Second Pointer is also expected to direct the flight of the Observatory Planetary Investigations from the Stratosphere (OPIS). This is significant because past scientists have not been willing to send such expensive instruments into space on less-expensive balloon craft. WASP has given these scientists the confidence to do so because of its precise system of finding and tracking objects.

To read more about the Wallops Arc Second Pointer and other instruments that plan to be deployed, visit this NASA news release.