What goes up
must come down.
A NASA-funded balloon experiment has been recovered
a year after flying over Antarctica.
In January 2016, the balloon circled around the continent for 12 days
carrying a telescope designed to study the sun.
The telescope measured high-energy particles generated from solar flares
to better understand how these processes can affect satellites and life on Earth.
After the flight, scientists recovered the data vaults
but due to incoming winter weather, they left the remaining instruments on the ice.
This January, in the Antarctic summer, scientists returned to the landing site
and successfully recovered the instruments and hardware.
Summer is a good time to recover balloon experiments,
and also to launch them.
The sun doesn’t set for a few months in the Antarctic summer,
which allows instruments to observe the sun continuously.
Winds in the stratosphere blow in a circular path around the pole
allowing missions to return roughly to the place they were launched.
With a successful recovery,
scientists are hoping to re-use the instruments for future flights.