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Balloon Campaign Will Seek Evidence of Antimatter Galaxy
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FILESPEC: ANTIMATR.DOC
DOCUMENT: Balloon Campaign Will Seek Evidence of Antimatter Galaxy
[07/29/88 Update of NASA Balloon Mission]
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NASA will launch three huge balloons in Canada next month to
search for cosmic rays, including those that could provide
evidence of galaxies made of antimatter.
Antimatter consists of particles with electrical charges
opposite those of "common" matter, which constitutes Earth's
material. When antimatter and matter collide there is a mutual
and complete annihilation, releasing energy far greater in
proportion then energy released by nuclear fission or fusion.
Whether antimatter could ever be created in sufficient
supply and harnessed to provide useful energy is a challenging
question.
The flights will begin Aug. 2, in a month-long campaign that
is part of the NASA Balloon Program managed by the Goddard Space
Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
Balloons that will lift three cosmic ray experiments to
approximately 120,000 feet will be launched from Prince Albert
Saskatchewan Airport, approximately 300 miles north of the
U.S./Canadian border.
Scientific balloons are utilized to carry large research
payloads with scientific instruments to make measurements at
altitudes above 99 percent of the Earth's atmosphere. They are
made of a thin polyethylene material and are more than 350 feet
in diameter at full inflation. These balloons provide unique
experiment platforms for measurements at altitudes in the upper
stratosphere.
Personnel from WFF and the National Scientific Balloon
Facility, Palestine, Texas, will provide the launching and
operational flight support at the primary operations site in
Prince Albert. Personnel from WFF also will provide downrange
telemetry tracking support at Edmonton, Alberta.
Principal investigators for this campaign are Dr. Steve
Ahlen, Boston University; Dr. W. Robert Binns, Washington
University; and Dr. Steve Schindler, California Institute of
Technology.
Ahlen's extragalactic antimatter experiment is a 4,500-pound
payload that will search for heavy anti-nuclei (anti-silicon to
anti-iron), and will be flown on a 28.4 million cubic foot
balloon. The observed anti-nuclei are expected to provide
evidence for the existence of galaxies made completely of
antimatter. Scientist believe this discovery could prove to be
extremely useful for understanding the annihilation process
between matter and antimatter in the creation of galaxies.
Binns' payload, called the scintillating optic fiber
experiment is a 1,200-pound cosmic ray isotope experiment that
will utilize newly-developed range and trajectory-defining
detectors based on scintillating fiber optics. It also will be
carried aloft by a 28.4 million-cubic-foot balloon.
Schindler's 2,700-pound payload, to be carried on a 23.3
million-cubic-foot balloon, is the high energy isotope
spectrometer telescope. This experiment employs a combination of
scintillators and counters to form a cosmic ray isotope
spectrometer capable of measuring the isotopic composition of
cosmic rays from helium to nickle.
The mission is part of the overall NASA Balloon Program,
managed at Wallops. The program provides 40-45 balloon flights a
year from locations around the world.
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