Study on planetary atmospheres and plasmas by a balloon-borne telescope

这项研究促进了正在开发的用于遥感行星大气和等离子体的气球载望远镜系统。在该系统中，净空孔径为300 mm的施密特-卡塞格伦望远镜安装在吊篮上，吊篮的姿态由控制力矩陀螺、主动解耦电机和太阳传感器控制。吊车可以在平流层漂浮一周以上。通过以下三级指向装置的协同工作，指向稳定性将达到10角秒/秒：吊篮姿态控制系统、用于粗制导的两轴望远镜万向架和用于引导误差修正的倾斜/倾斜镜架。倾斜/倾斜镜由来自位置灵敏光电倍增管的实时校正信号控制。模拟摄像机和数字摄像机分别在近红外和紫外光下获取目标的视频图像。电力由太阳能电池板和镍氢电池提供，这两种电池的低温特性已经过测试。加压电池包含两台PC、DC/DC转换器、前置放大器和用于倾斜/倾斜镜面安装的高压电源。通过热真空试验，验证了系统在低温低压条件下的性能。瑞典基律纳的埃斯兰奇被调查为未来北极实验的候选发射场。该系统的第一个目标是金星。金星高层大气中的风矢量将根据对紫外线和近红外区观测到的云型的跟踪得出。一项旨在测试该系统性能的实验计划于2007年6月在日本进行，在北极的一次长期飞行计划于2008年进行。

This research has promoted the ongoing development of a balloon-borne telescope system for remote sensing of planetary atmospheres and plasmas. In this system, a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a 300-mm clear aperture is mounted on a gondola whose attitude is controlled by control moment gyros, an active decoupling motor, and a Sun sensor. The gondola can float in the stratosphere for periods in excess of 1 week. A pointing stability of 10 arcsec/sec will be achieved via the cooperative operation of the following three-stage pointing devices: a gondola-attitude control system, two-axis telescope gimbals for coarse guiding, and a tip/tilt mirror mount for guiding error correction. The tip/tilt mirror is controlled by a real-time correction signal from a position-sensitive photomultiplier tube. Video images of an object in near-infrared and ultraviolet are obtained by analog and digital CCD video cameras, respectively. Power is supplied by solar cell panels and Ni-MH batteries, of which low temperature characteristics have been tested. A pressurized cell contains two PCs, DC/DC converters, pre-amplifiers and a high-voltage power supply for a tip/tilt mirror mount. System performance under a low-temperature and low-pressure condition has been confirmed by a thermal vacuum test. ESRANGE in Kiruna, Sweden was investigated for a candidate launch site of a future experiment in the Arctic. The first target for the system is Venus. Wind vectors in the Venusian upper atmosphere will be derived from the tracking of cloud patterns observed in the ultraviolet and near-infrared regions. An experiment designed to test the system performance is scheduled to take place in Japan during June 2007, and a long-duration flight in the Arctic is scheduled for 2008.