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