The Royal Astronomical Society has developed SuperBIT, a balloon-based telescope that is claimed to fly to the verge of Earth’s atmosphere and snap high-resolution images of space. The telescope is a joint venture between NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, Durham University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto.
A helium-filled balloon will carry the SuperBIT telescope higher than 99.5-percent of Earth’s atmosphere. As per the RAS, the balloon is around the size of a football stadium, enabling it to carry the telescope high enough to capture high-resolution images of space.
Prolonged mission time
This setup has captured an image of the iconic Pillars of Space. The advantage of placing a telescope outside of Earth’s atmosphere is being able to capture space images that aren’t distorted by the atmosphere. It is something that the Hubble Space Telescope has been doing for over three decades and soon the James Webb Telescope will be joining the league.
As for the SuperBIT, the telescope packs a 1.6 ft mirror. The telescope’s final test flight was conducted in 2019, and though the idea of carrying a telescope on a balloon isn’t new, there is something that differentiates SuperBIT from others. The RAS explains that helium balloons usually lose their pressure quickly, which means these types of missions can only survive for a few days.
Way cheaper than satellite-based telescopes
Thanks to a NASA innovation that involved “super pressure” balloons to hold pressure for longer, SuperBIT will get to spend a good amount of time circling Earth, charging batteries with the aid of its solar panels during the day, and capturing the cosmos at night. The telescope will be launched in April 2022 from Wanaka, New Zealand, with the aim to circle Earth several times.
Additionally, SuperBIT is also cost-effective when compared to constructing a satellite-based telescope – at $5 million, RAS says it was 1,000 times cheaper than a satellite with the same abilities. Besides, unlike satellite-based solutions, SuperBIT can be regularly updated with the latest camera technology.
