It鈥檚 an icy fall morning at the Madras Airport. In the distance, Mount 老夫子传媒 is pink with dawn light.
A crew led by Vic Rogers from has been working all night preparing for inflation.
鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna clear the hose,鈥� he shouts to his team over the rumble of the truck stacked with helium tanks. 鈥淚鈥檓 just gonna run a little gas just to get the dirt, bugs or whatever out of the line.鈥�
With a low hiss, the line is cleared.
Off to one side, Near Space President Kevin Tucker braces himself with a large air hose on the tarmac.
鈥淲e鈥檙e about ready to start inflation. We鈥檒l start running helium 鈥� it runs up the inflation tub and will start inflating the main bubble of the balloon,鈥� he says.
The low hiss comes again, then a loud whine as the airflow increases. The translucent white top of the balloon billows and eventually pulls off the ground, anchored to a winch on a trailer.
This isn鈥檛 a kid鈥檚 balloon. It鈥檚 not even a hot air balloon. The balloon Tucker is helping to inflate is about 500 feet, close to 50 stories high. It will only be partially filled, because the gas inside will expand as it rises.
鈥淓very 10,000 feet, that volume doubles. So the balloon that started looking kind of like a somewhat not very full bag, once it鈥檚 up at 100,000 ft, looks like a stretched-out balloon,鈥� Tucker says.
This massive balloon will carry precious cargo from the , ESA, into the stratosphere to test the parachute of a new Mars rover.
Unlikely Oregon
When you think of the aerospace industry and science, Oregon probably doesn鈥檛 pop to mind. Instead, you may think about in Washington, in Florida or Texas, or maybe even in California.
But Oregon has a long history of making space exploration possible 鈥� mostly by serving as the testing ground for and destined for the stars.
Tillamook-based Near Space Corporation has made its name with high-altitude balloons 鈥� testing equipment for space agencies around the world on the coast and in Central Oregon.
鈥淥ne of the things that I think people find the most interesting, odd to believe, is that that鈥檚 a team that鈥檚 here in Tillamook, Oregon,鈥� Tucker said.
贰厂础鈥檚 is the focus of this round of tests. The mission鈥檚 goal is to answer the question: Has there ever been life on Mars?
鈥淚 remember I was a kid and I was watching the Viking mission and waiting to hear about the Martians, the yellow-green characters that never came,鈥� said Thierry Blancquaert, ExoMars project team leader.
If there is life on Mars, it will likely be more microbe than Martian. 贰厂础鈥檚 Mars rover will use a drill to look for evidence of life below ground.
鈥淲hen looking at the evolution of the planets, looking at Mars will probably tell us quite some interesting things about the possible evolution, even of the Earth,鈥� he said.
But before the rover can go to work, the module must first land safely on the planet鈥檚 surface.
It will do this using a series of breaking maneuvers that include one of the largest parachutes ever deployed.
That parachute will have to handle 12-14 tons of force when it鈥檚 deployed, and this force can cause serious problems.
鈥淭his parachute is made of a very thin nylon 鈥� and when you pull nylon from a Kevlar bag at very high velocities, then there is the risk of searing the fabric material of the parachute,鈥� Blancquaert said.
This happened during previous tests, resulting in large tears in the parachute. It鈥檚 something the European testing crew will be looking for this time around.
Central Oregon is a near-perfect place for this kind of parachute testing because of its remoteness and relatively consistent weather, all good things when you鈥檙e trying to send a giant balloon and a test module more than 100 thousand feet up.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 almost 25 miles straight up. So we鈥檙e really high. We鈥檙e outside of 99.9% of Earth鈥檚 atmosphere,鈥� Tucker said.
Going high is key. Mars doesn鈥檛 have nearly the density of atmosphere as we have here on Earth. So to replicate the conditions a parachute will face on Mars, it will need to release where Earth鈥檚 atmosphere is thin.
鈥淏alloons are鈥n elegant way to get to the altitudes we need,鈥� he said.
More than just a balloon
Before the high-altitude balloons ever make their debut over the high desert, they鈥檙e constructed and tested at Near Space Corporations鈥� headquarters in Tillamook.
The balloons are made of a strong, sheer plastic-y material, like cling wrap on steroids. Long panels of the material, called 鈥済ores鈥� in the business, are fused together on narrow tables that stretch hundreds of feet long.
The seams are tested at the beginning and end of each manufacturing day for strength and durability by Amanda Knutson, the quality lead aerospace engineer at NSC and technician Stan Richmond.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a pass-fail criteria,鈥� Knutson says. 鈥淲e pull them to failure. They鈥檙e destructive tests.鈥�
The 鈥減ull test鈥� is just that. There鈥檚 a machine in the test lab 鈥� rather unimaginatively called a 鈥渃onstant rate of extension machine鈥� 鈥� that grabs onto two gore sections that are fused in the middle.
Richmond loads the sample.
鈥淥k, let鈥檚 see what happens,鈥� he says. 鈥淐ross your fingers 鈥� I always do!鈥�
The two arms begin to pull and the gore material narrows like a rubber band as it stretches out. It stretches to 10 times the original length, then 20. After just a few seconds, the tension of anticipation is like filling an over-full balloon, knowing it鈥檒l pop any moment.
But it takes a full minute for the sample to give way with a satisfying 鈥淪NAP.鈥� And when it does, it鈥檚 not the seam that separates, it鈥檚 the gore itself.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a successful test,鈥� Richmond says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we hope for, that the seal is actually stronger than the material around it.鈥�
Go for launch
Out in Madras, launch time has arrived. The helium lines are disconnected and moved out of the way.
Vic Rogers runs around doing last-minute checks, clearing the runway of all but the most essential crew. Everything seems quiet and still. He signals the release.
The massive balloon rises, billowing audibly with surprising volume. It pulls the unfilled lower envelope and connection lines up with it. A slight breeze blows it down the runway over the top of a crane truck holding the payload suspended a few feet off the ground.
In perfect coordination, the balloon pulls all the slack out of the line and the crane releases the module. It doesn鈥檛 even touch the runway.
The sheer-white balloon picks up speed as it rises into the winter-blue sky.
The communications crew at the airport tracks the balloon鈥檚 flight, giving regular status updates over the radio.
鈥淐urrent ascent rate is 1,080 feet per minute,鈥� it crackles.
The balloon shrinks into the distance as the winds carry it southeast across the high desert.
Go get it
As the communications crew at the airport tracks the balloon鈥檚 flight, another team on the ground about two hours downwind picks up the trail.
鈥淚t鈥檚 coming this way. I got it here on a map. It鈥檚 east of Prineville, not too far from the Ochocos,鈥� reports Jake Young, recovery team lead for NSC.
His job is to track down and recover the parachute and module in the desert and then eventually the deflated balloon.
鈥淲hen we terminate the flight, the pieces will come apart and we鈥檒l be able to track each piece as they separate,鈥� Young says.
The team is holding on the side of a rural road, waiting for the balloon to reach the target height. They don鈥檛 want anything they send up to come down on private property. And if the balloon rises too fast or too slow, it could drastically change where the pieces land, meaning Young鈥檚 crew has to stay nimble.
鈥淔luid,鈥� Young corrects. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 the next level up from nimble.鈥�
The balloon finally comes into view, a white speck in the far distance.
鈥淲e have FAA approval,鈥� Young鈥檚 radio barks. 鈥淥ne minute to release.鈥�
鈥淪ending payload fire now.鈥�
Rough road to recovery
The ESA module comes down five miles from the closest road, so the recovery crew loads into four ATVs and hits the rough open trail across the desert.
The dirt track is bumpy and sloppy, with ice in the ruts. The crew passes through cattle fences and near cows grazing on the open range.
A spotter plane overhead is directing Young to the parachute鈥檚 location. He stops the convoy to brief the rest of the team.
鈥淭his is the fun part!鈥� yells over the engine noise. 鈥淚鈥檒l lead because I got coms with the airplane. He鈥檚 walking us on 鈥� I鈥檓 hoping it鈥檚 between us and those trees.鈥�
A stand of juniper covers a hill in the distance, raising fears of a difficult extraction from both the Near Space and European crewmembers.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e hoping to find is a nice pristine parachute, and the test vehicle that鈥檚 intact and some good data,鈥� says Joe Lynch, an engineer with ESA contractor Vorticity Systems.
The parachute ends up in an open sagebrush area.
鈥淚t鈥檚 good in a sense that you鈥檝e got low scrub. It鈥檚 not in the trees. So that鈥檚 a plus,鈥� Young says. 鈥淏ut in a perfect world, it would have been closer to a paved road.鈥�
The European team wastes no time documenting the condition of the parachute, which is tangled in the groundcover. The module itself is intact.
鈥淣ice to see it in one piece,鈥� Lynch says as he snaps photos of the rig.
There are no obvious signs of damage on the parachute, but they won鈥檛 know for sure until they get back to Europe where every inch of the massive parachute will be examined.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the best part of two days. It鈥檚 a lot of fabric to inspect,鈥� he says.
The results will have broad implications for 贰厂础鈥檚 ExoMars mission, which was initially scheduled to launch in September 2022 in partnership with, the Russian space agency. But that because of EU sanctions against Russia issued after the invasion of Ukraine and Russia鈥檚 withdrawal from international space operations.
On the ground, the recovery team carefully untangles and rolls up the parachute. They pack it into a sack and strap it to the top of the module. And they get a short break waiting for the helicopter to come in and airlift the precious cargo back to civilization.
The high-altitude test will soon be approaching the 24-hour mark, and there鈥檚 still more clean-up work ahead. But at the end of a long day, Kevin Tucker and his team know the parachute model that will be key to the next Mars mission, had to land in Oregon first.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e gonna fly something that weighs a ton or so through the airspace and then bring it all back to Earth and go get it鈥� that鈥檚 all done, everyone鈥檚 back, that becomes a really good night鈥檚 sleep after that.鈥�
Copyright 2022
