Scientific Balloon Telemetry, Command and Data Recording

Abstract

The free balloon provides science with a very useful means of reaching the upper levels of the earth's atmosphere. To take full advantage of the balloon's capability as a scientific platform, methods for determining the balloon's trajectory, recovering the scientific data and controlling the scientific equipment and balloon system are required. Several modes of communication are available to accomplish this task. This paper describes the techniques used by the National Scientific Balloon Facility for data recovery, data presentation, recording and system control including standard telemetry methods and current and proposed satellite techniques.