The CNES 2015 - 2017 Balloon Program

摘要

With more than 50 years' experience in the field, the French Space Agency, CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales) goes on supporting a significant scientific ballooning program. Because balloons give a unique and cost effective access to near space science, they permit to address a wide range of scientific and technical themes, such as astronomy, atmospheric physics and chemistry, climate research, biology, space research and technology. Last, the shorter time frame when executing a balloon project is especially attractive to PhD students and young scientists, who can achieve results for their work in a reasonable time frame and to be trained as the next generation of space scientists and engineers. This paper presents an overview of the scientific campaigns over the past two years and 2017, including the development effort of new capabilities, like the new stratospheric long duration flight system and related mission studied at CNES.