Press Release
GUSTO Mission Breaks NASA Record for Longest Flight by Heavy Lift Balloon
The GUSTO telescope hangs from the hangar crane during telescope pointing tests at the Long Duration Balloon Facility on the Ross Ice Shelf near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on Dec. 6, 2023. Mission specialists were calibrating the star cameras, used to determine the direction of pointing of the telescope. View the full image.
Credit: José Silva on behalf of the GUSTO team
NASA’s latest mission to explore our universe by balloon has officially soared into the record books.
The Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) broke the record for the longest flight time by a heavy lift, long-duration balloon on Feb. 24, topping the previous record holder, which lasted for 55 days, 1 hour and 34 minutes. The new record is 57 days, 7 hours.
“We are thrilled that GUSTO performed so well,” said Kieran Hegarty, program manager for GUSTO at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “That it broke the record is a testament to the dedication of the team that developed this system and then operated it around the clock during a challenging set of Antarctic operations.”
Launched near McMurdo Station in Antarctica last December, GUSTO — a mission collaboration between NASA, the University of Arizona, APL, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and others — features a radio telescope suspended in the air from a balloon the width of a football field.
The telescope’s observations will help scientists create a 3D map of a large part of the Milky Way galaxy to determine the abundances of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements critical to life.
While in the sky, GUSTO “listened” to high-frequency signals emitted by these elements within clouds of dust and gas that accumulate between stars. The airborne observatory will also reveal the 3D structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way.
Why Antarctica?
Launching from Antarctica is extreme, but the region’s low humidity provides the type of environment GUSTO requires to complete its mission.
“It’s a radio telescope detecting high-frequency radio waves. Those frequencies are absorbed by moisture,” said Elliot Rodberg, GUSTO’s integration test engineer at APL. “In Antarctica, we can get above most of the moisture in the atmosphere into a region with low humidity.”
Scientists also benefit from Antarctica’s lack of airspace restrictions, allowing GUSTO to fly for weeks without worry of interruptions or potential interference with aircraft. And with circumpolar winds that encircle the South Pole, GUSTO can ride the gales for weeks.
“These balloons don’t have propulsion, so you’re dependent entirely on the winds,” said James Tobias, lead mechanical engineer for GUSTO at APL. “Staying within this general region allows our instrument to survey the same area of the sky for an extended period of time.”
The GUSTO telescope, with solar arrays mounted on the gondola that holds it, sits in the Long Duration Balloon Facility on the Ross Ice Shelf near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on Dec. 17 during final preparations before its launch later that month. View the full image.
Credit: José Silva on behalf of the GUSTO team
Life in Antarctica
GUSTO team members from APL and our partner institutions traveled to Antarctica for an extended period last October during the Antarctic summer.
The team members first landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, where they collected extreme cold weather gear provided by the U.S. Antarctic Program before traveling to McMurdo Station.
“There’s no place like it on Earth,” said Daniel Ayoub, lead engineer for the gondola that carried the observatory. “Of all the regions on Earth, Antarctica may be among the most remote. It was an interesting experience.”
Life, in some ways, was similar to living in a college dorm. The team members typically lived with a roommate during their stay, and meals were provided at the dining hall. The biggest shifts were the temperatures, which even during summer average around zero degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius), and trying to sleep with 24 hours of sunlight. Ayoub said he and his roommate used blackout curtains during evening hours to help approximate when it was time to sleep.
On days off, team members used their time exploring the region’s wildlife — such as Weddell seals and Adélie penguins — and bonding with fellow scientists and engineers. Activities such as volleyball, pickleball and trivia contests were offered. During his stay, Ayoub volunteered to work as a librarian on site, and even took salsa lessons.
“I feel very blessed and lucky to have traveled to Antarctica, and I feel even more lucky to be down here doing my job as an engineer for this important mission,” he said.
The Cold Never Bothered GUSTO
Getting the mission off the ground took patience and a bit of luck. The same winds the team needed to carry the balloon and its cargo around the South Pole were the greatest hindrance to takeoff.
Most days, winds on the continent would whip up between 10 and 20 miles per hour (16 and 32 kilometers per hour), sometimes 30 mph (48 kph) on particularly blustery days. For GUSTO’s balloon to successfully lift its payload into the sky, the team needed low winds extending from the ground up to thousands of feet.
“High-altitude balloons are fragile,” said Rodberg. “It’s tricky to let them go carrying a 5,000-pound payload if the winds are higher than about five miles an hour.”
Bad weather caused schedule delays. Each day, buses were scheduled to take engineers on a 45-minute journey (one way) between McMurdo Station and the work site, navigating volcanic dirt roads covered in snow. Some days, shuttles were canceled because of difficult weather conditions.
Antarctica’s remote location presented challenges during situations where team members were missing critical items.
“If there’s something you need to complete your work, and they don’t have it on-site, you have to wait a week or two in order to get it,” said Tobias. “It’s not like you’re going to the hardware store down the street.”
The first results from GUSTO are expected this spring, but the record-setting NASA science mission has proven the ability to deliver fundamental, new space science at a significantly lower cost compared to space missions.
“APL engineers, partnering with science organizations, provide a wealth of expertise in designing unique solutions for GUSTO and other balloon-borne science missions, delivering significant science value to NASA for a relatively low cost,” said Hegarty.
