Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM 

Monday, April 24, 2000 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium 

I. Steve Smith

ABSTRACT -- The NASA Balloon Program technology efforts have focused on the development of technologies to support increased capability balloon missions.  Advances made in analytical structural/performance modeling and light-weight composite materials offer the promise of super-pressure balloons capable of extended flight duration.  Experience with the NASA Long Duration Balloon (LDB) systems have demonstrated the ability to send and receive scientific data and control missions on a global basis for up to approximately 20 days.  In 1997 a project was approved to develop and demonstrate those technologies required to support balloon missions lasting up to 100 days above 33.5 km.  The development project, called the Ultra Long Duration Balloon Project (ULDB), is scheduled to conclude with a technology/science demonstration flight in the year 2001.  Major technical challenges include the balloon structural and material design, balloon/material fabrication, power, thermal control, attitude control, telecommunications, data storage, and international overflight.  An overview of the ULDB Project will be presented.

SPEAKER -- I. "Steve" Smith, Jr. is currently the Project Manager for the Ultra-Long Duration Balloon Project.  A graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, he began a career in scientific ballooning over 26 years ago with the National Center for Atmospheric Research/National Scientific Balloon Facility.  Smith’s career took him to NASA in 1983.  He has been involved in a large diversity of balloon technology endeavors as related to balloon design and analysis, materials development, flight and ground instrumentation development, and flight performance and analysis. He has design experience in zero-pressure, super-pressure, and hybrid balloon systems such as the Sky Anchor balloon system as well as balloon and mission concepts for planetary missions.  He has directed research activities, including mechanical and morphological characterization of thin polymeric films; polymeric film processing; J-integral fracture mechanics of thin polymeric films; non-linear finite element structural modeling; flight performance modeling; laboratory and flight testing; and development of new flight systems and sensors.  Smith has published several papers and co-authored the feature article "Floating in Space" in the November 1999 issue of Scientific American.