4
Wednesday, October 28, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Up, up and away; balloon launch supports research Teen driver
cited after
running
off road
The Battelle Memorial
Institute teamed with Sisters-
based ISTAR, headed by
Steven Peterzen, to perform
the launch of a stratospheric
balloon from Sisters Eagle
Airport last week.
Battelle is the world9s
largest nonprofit orga-
nization which supports
research in a variety of sci-
entific investigation such as
NEON, the NSF arctic pro-
gram, Brookhaven National
Laboratory, Idaho National
L a b o r a t o r y, L a w r e n c e
Livermore National
Laboratory, Los Alamos
National Laboratory, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory,
Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory as well as several
other national laboratories.
Last year, Battelle funded
the Sisters High School
RISE program that includes
a stratospheric balloon proj-
ect that the local high school
students design, construct
and launch.
According to Peterzen,
the purpose of last week9s
test flight was to demon-
strate that the Differential
Segmented Aperture (DSA)
is an enabling technology
for high-altitude and space
systems. To achieve this
goal, Battelle has contracted
ISTAR to orchestrate the
launch and flight operations
of a stratospheric balloon
with a CubeSat payload hav-
ing DSA9s on the top and
the bottom of the suspended
gondola connected to low-
cost radio-frequency and
digital equipment.
The near-space environ-
ment of the stratosphere
simulated some of the chal-
lenges of operating the DSA
in low earth orbit (LEO).
In addition, typical strato-
spheric balloon platforms
utilize traditional anten-
nas (patch, monopole, and
dipole) for Sat Com and or
telemetry. The system for
tracking, commanding, and
receiving creates the need
for multiple antennas 4 one
or more per signal of inter-
est (SOI) 4 resulting in
an increase in system size,
weight, power requirements
and cost (SWAP-C), while
decreasing function agility.
<Obviously, b a llo o n
and space platforms are
extremely SWAP limited,
so any performance gains
have direct impact on mis-
sion availability,= Peterzen
explained. <The successful
test of the DSA demonstrated
a potential means to con-
solidate the multiple anten-
nas currently used in most
stratospheric-balloon plat-
forms and promote the DSA
as an innovative antenna for
spacecraft.=
The 10,000-cubic-meter
balloon (0.3 million cubic
feet) was launched from
Sisters Eagle Airport Friday
morning, October 16, reach-
ing an altitude of 37.46
meters (121,545 feet) and
PHOTO PROVIDED
The Battelle Memorial Institute and Sisters-based ISTAR launched a
research balloon from Sisters last week.
maintained flight for approx-
imately two hours. The bal-
loon was built in the USA
by Raven Aerostar. Once
fully inflated and reaching
the desired float altitude, the
balloon expands to a height
of 75.73 feet and width of
90.36 feet.
The flight was terminated
by IRIDIUM commands the
afternoon of the day of the
launch. The Battelle payload
had a mass of 36 pounds.
The payload impacted in the
area southeast of Paulina,
near White Butte Creek.
Recovery of the flight sys-
tem and payload were being
carried out at press time.
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<Launch operations were
orchestrated by ISTAR and
carried out by our local sup-
port team made up of Rima
Givot; Sisters High School
students Sasha Stolasz and
Corbin Fredland; Corbin9s
sister Molly Fredland; along
with Rod Gunson, Teri Ast,
and Rod Moorehead, who
also captured video and
photos using an RC glider,=
Peterzen reported. <The
Battelle technicians and
engineers Nicholas Romano,
Forest Banks, Shannon Pitts
and Micah Meleski joined
the team in the launch opera-
tions and post-flight systems
recovery.=
A teen driver and passen-
gers escaped injury when a
new driver ran off a forest
road southwest of Sisters last
week.
On the night of October
22, Sisters deputies
responded to a reported crash
on Edgington Road near
Sisters. The location of the
accident was a short distance
from the site of a recent fatal
crash that took the lives of
three teenage girls earlier
this month.
The driver in the
Thursday night accident had
just received their driver9s
license and had two passen-
gers in the vehicle.
No one was hurt in the
incident.
The Sheriff 9s Office
reminds new drivers and
their parents that it is a viola-
tion of the law to operate a
vehicle with non-family pas-
sengers within the first six
months of receiving a driv-
er9s license.
Due to recent similar inci-
dents the Sheriff9s Office
is asking parents to have
discussions with young
drivers about the serious-
ness of operating motorized
vehicles.
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