{"id":5,"date":"2018-01-03T16:27:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T16:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.2.102\/wordpress\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2018-03-28T07:14:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T07:14:32","slug":"project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/project\/","title":{"rendered":"Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the findings of the H2020-funded ORISON project, we pursue the design and development of a new European astronomical research infrastructure for stratospheric balloon-based telescopes. Our approach is to provide a versatile community-accessible observatory capable of covering unserved scientific needs, including those of star- and planet formation studies and exoplanet atmosphere research. We thus particularly focus on high spatial and spectral resolution far-infrared (FIR) observations, high sensitivity UV observations, and highly accurate visible light photometry. To a certain extent, these needs could also be addressed by space missions. A balloon infrastructure, however, will offer a more cost-efficient and flexible approach, allowing instruments more adaptable to evolving needs (exchangeable and less risk-adverse), longer overall observation times (possibility to refill cooling fluids), and larger mirror sizes (less severe launcher restrictions). So far, stratospheric telescopes, with the exception of SOFIA, have mostly served a single purpose and did not fly more than a few times. The envisioned infrastructure, in contrast, will provide regular flights, allowing it to operate as a true observatory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The envisioned infrastructure will be prepared in two parts within the project:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Conceptualization of the full distributed infrastructure with several flight platforms, including a suitable governance and operation structure for long-term operation and development. These will build upon a highly sensitive UV platform and lead to a next-generation FIR platform with unprecedented angular resolution exceeding that of Herschel and SOFIA by a factor of 1.5 to 2. A development roadmap will summarize the necessary development steps and funding needs.<\/li>\n<li>Demonstration of the manageability and safe recovery of high-performance and versatile astronomical balloon platforms via a prototype carrying a next-generation UV-detector and a visible camera for photometric tests.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Objectives and expected results<\/h2>\n<p>The primary goal of the ESBO <em>DS<\/em>\u00a0project is to carry out the conceptual design and pave the way for a European Stratospheric Balloon Observatory (ESBO), accessible to a wide scientific community. To reach this goal, the project team will pursue the following objectives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Conceptually design a European Stratospheric Balloon Observatory with distinct platforms to cover currently unserved scientific needs (currently foreseeing three platforms: one tailored for UV and visible astronomy, one tailored for visible and near infrared high photometric accuracy and near infrared astronomy in general, and one tailored for far infrared astronomy);<\/li>\n<li>Conceptualize an operations and governance framework within which a European Stratospheric Balloon Observatory can be maintained and expanded in the long term;<\/li>\n<li>Develop a roadmap to full capabilities, particularly for far-infrared observations, including the identification of critical required developments and associated costs;<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrate the maturity of the critical technologies for the first step (UV\/visible platform) via a prototype;<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrate a next-generation UV prototype instrument and visible light photometric measurements on the ESBO prototype\/first step platform;<\/li>\n<li>Ensure the provision of the prototype for scientific use and exploitation after the ESBO <em>DS <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The concrete results of the ESBO <em>DS<\/em>\u00a0project will be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A conceptual design of the full infrastructure, including: ground systems, UV-NIR and FIR flight platforms, operations and governance concepts<\/li>\n<li>A concise development roadmap, including technological and financial needs to establish the infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>A demonstration of manageability and maturity of a versatile astronomical balloon platform<\/li>\n<li>A gondola prototype, including telescope and instruments, available for further scientific exploitation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the findings of the H2020-funded ORISON project, we pursue the design and development of a new European astronomical research infrastructure for stratospheric balloon-based telescopes. Our approach is to provide a versatile community-accessible observatory capable of covering unserved scientific needs, including those of star- and planet formation studies and exoplanet atmosphere research. We thus particularly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbo-ds.irs.uni-stuttgart.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}