33 results about "High-altitude balloon" patented technology

The invention comprises an apparatus, method for using the apparatus and system for balloon altitude control by in-situ characterization and active energy management. The invention presented enables transportation, autonomous operation and use of a balloon beyond the limits of conventional high-altitude ballooning to the edge of the atmosphere, or about 100 km above the surface of the Earth. The apparatus comprises at least: an envelope containing lift-gas; an envelope and lift-gas characterizer; an altitude control system operated using active energy addition and lift-gas transfer or ambient air introduction into the system; and an external payload component. The invention is capable of operating in ascent, descent, or stationary mode; the altitudinal movement of the balloon is caused by measuring in-situ envelope and lift-gas characteristics, identifying the change in the lift-gas energy needed, and facilitating the required energy change for altitude control.

Described herein are features for a high altitude lighter-than-air (LTA) system and associated methods. A zero-pressure balloon (ZPB) is attached in tandem with one or more air super-pressure balloons (SPB). The ZPB provides lift for the system while the SPB may provide a variable amount of ballast air by pumping in or expelling out ambient air. Various advanced performance targets relating to ascent rate, descent rate, range and maximum altitude are achievable with various scaled versions of the basic design of the LTA system. Advanced navigation and control techniques, such as more efficient high altitude station-keeping approaches, made possible with the LTA system are also described.

The invention discloses a meteorological data transmission method and system of a high-altitude balloon sonde, and relates to the technical field of meteorological data transmission methods. The high-altitude balloon sonde collects multiple pieces of meteorological data in real time along a meteorological detection mode; and the corresponding meteorological dynamic graph is determined based on the plurality of meteorological data, the corresponding azimuth position and the surrounding environment image of the high-altitude balloon sonde, so that the accuracy of the meteorological dynamic graph is ensured. Therefore, a corresponding meteorological data packet is formed based on the meteorological dynamic graph and a plurality of corresponding meteorological data, and the first data transmission mode is determined according to the data volume of the meteorological data packet and the position of the high-altitude balloon sonde; and if yes, determining a second data transmission mode according to the abnormal factors of the abnormal nodes of the data transmission path and the to-be-transmitted data corresponding to the abnormal nodes, thereby improving the integrity and stability of meteorological data transmission of the air ball air detector.

The invention relates to an ocean emergency communication method based on hierarchical deployment of a high-altitude balloon and an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring a communication weighted demand of a user; constructing an unmanned aerial vehicle deployment optimization objective function based on the dynamic demand distribution map, solving the objective function to obtain an optimal target deployment position of the unmanned aerial vehicle, planning an unmanned aerial vehicle moving path based on the target deployment position, and obtaining a central position of the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster at the moment after the unmanned aerial vehicle moves to the optimal target deployment position; and calculating and maximizing the beam pointing efficiency based on the central position, obtaining a target pointing angle adjustment instruction of a line beam of the high-altitude captive balloon platform, executing the target pointing angle adjustment instruction, and communicating the user, the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster and the high-altitude captive balloon platform after executing the adjustment instruction. Compared with the prior art, the method has the advantages of improving the network topology adjustment and resource allocation efficiency of ocean emergency communication and the like.

The invention provides an overhead atmospheric temperature measuring device and method. The measuring device comprises at least one temperature probe and a temperature measuring circuit. The temperature probe adopts a patch type four-wire platinum resistor temperature sensor, spaceflight white paint is coated on the surface of the temperature probe and a nearby cable, and the temperature probe is arranged on the outer surface of the high-altitude balloon; the temperature measurement circuit adopts a four-wire system constant current source temperature measurement circuit and comprises a power conversion circuit, a constant current source circuit, a filter circuit and an instrument amplification circuit.

The invention comprises an apparatus, method for using the apparatus and system for balloon altitude control by in-situ characterization and active energy management. The invention presented enables transportation, autonomous operation and use of a balloon beyond the limits of conventional high-altitude ballooning to the edge of the atmosphere, or about 100 km above the surface of the Earth. The apparatus comprises at least: an envelope containing lift-gas; an envelope and lift-gas characterizer; an altitude control system operated using active energy addition and lift-gas transfer or ambient air introduction into the system; and an external payload component. The invention is capable of operating in ascent, descent, or stationary mode; the altitudinal movement of the balloon is caused by measuring in-situ envelope and lift-gas characteristics, identifying the change in the lift-gas energy needed, and facilitating the required energy change for altitude control.

The utility model relates to a ballast adjusting system for a high-altitude balloon, and relates to the technical field of high-altitude balloons. Comprising an outer balloon, an inner balloon, a storage cabin, a ballast, a first control switch and a movable baffle. A first accommodating space is formed in the outer balloon, and the first accommodating space is filled with buoyancy lift gas; the inner balloon is arranged in the first accommodating space, and a second accommodating space is formed in the inner balloon; a third accommodating space is formed in the storage cabin, and the third accommodating space communicates with the second accommodating space; the ballast is arranged in the third containing space and used for being gasified to enter the second containing space. The first control switch is arranged at the joint of the storage cabin and the inner balloon; an opening is formed in the side, away from the inner balloon, of the storage bin and communicates with the third containing space, and the movable baffle covers the opening. The problems that the ballast adjusting system of the high-altitude balloon is poor in sustainable adjusting effect and high in energy consumption are solved by prolonging the time through phase change of the ballast and opening and closing of the movable baffle.

The invention comprises an apparatus, method for using the apparatus and system for balloon altitude control by in-situ characterization and active energy management. The invention presented enables transportation, autonomous operation and use of a balloon beyond the limits of conventional high-altitude ballooning to the edge of the atmosphere, or about 100 km above the surface of the Earth. The apparatus comprises at least: an envelope containing lift-gas; an envelope and lift-gas characterizer; an altitude control system operated using active energy addition and lift-gas transfer or ambient air introduction into the system; and an external payload component. The invention is capable of operating in ascent, descent, or stationary mode; the altitudinal movement of the balloon is caused by measuring in-situ envelope and lift-gas characteristics, identifying the change in the lift-gas energy needed, and facilitating the required energy change for altitude control.

The invention provides a solar cell calibration-oriented high-altitude balloon sphere reflected light detection method, and relates to the technical field of solar cell calibration, the method is based on high-altitude balloon attribute parameters, a three-order Bezier curve is used for fitting a two-dimensional model of a high-altitude balloon, and thus an accurate sphere geometric model is established; determining the solar altitude based on the latitude of the position of the high-altitude balloon and the sun irradiation time, thereby determining the angle of the sunlight irradiating the high-altitude balloon; and then, based on the two-dimensional model and the solar altitude angle, determining a quantized value of the reflected light of the high-altitude balloon which generates interference on solar cell calibration. According to the solar cell calibration-oriented high-altitude balloon sphere reflected light detection method provided by the invention, through quantitative evaluation of the high-altitude balloon sphere reflected light, accurate detection of the high-altitude balloon sphere reflected light is realized, and the solar cell calibration precision is improved.

The invention provides an exhaust valve of a high-altitude balloon and the high-altitude balloon. The exhaust valve of the high-altitude balloon comprises a cylinder body, a valve cover, a coil, a magnetic part and an elastic part, the first end of the cylinder body is used for being connected with a balloon body of the high-altitude balloon, the interior of the cylinder body is communicated with the interior of the balloon body, and an exhaust port is formed in the second end of the cylinder body; the valve cover is arranged in the cylinder body and is movably connected with the second end of the cylinder body so as to block or open the exhaust port; the coil and the magnetic part are both arranged in the cylinder body; the magnetic piece is connected with the valve cover; the two ends of the elastic assembly are connected with the first end of the barrel and the magnetic piece correspondingly, and the elastic assembly is in a pre-compressed state; when the coil is not powered on, the exhaust port is closed, and when the coil is powered on, the exhaust port is opened. According to the exhaust valve of the high-altitude balloon, opening and closing of the valve are achieved through the electromagnetic principle, the structure of a driving mode is simplified, the overall weight of the exhaust valve is reduced, energy consumption is reduced, and the task execution time of the high-altitude balloon is prolonged.

The present application relates to high altitude balloon launching technical field, provide a kind of balloon launching system and launching method, balloon launching system includes sequentially connected balloon, cable and gondola and drum device, restraint device and gondola release device.Drum device is pressed in balloon, and the balloon is divided into the first part and the second part connected in communication from the end away from cable to the end connected with cable.Restraint device is connected with cable, and restraint device is used to fix or release cable.Gondola release device is used to fix or release gondola.Drum device and gondola release device are both configured to be rotatable around vertical axis passing through restraint device.The balloon launching system of the present application, during inflation process, drum device and gondola release device can be rotated relative to restraint device so as to arrange drum device, restraint device and gondola release device in turn along the direction of wind before releasing balloon, avoid balloon from being damaged after release.

The application relates to the technical field of aerostats, and provides a high-altitude balloon system which comprises a rising balloon, a cutting mechanism, a recovery balloon and a gondola, the bottom of the rising balloon is connected with the bottom of the recovery balloon, the recovery balloon is arranged in the rising balloon, the gondola is fixedly connected with the recovery balloon, and a task execution device is arranged in the gondola; the cutting mechanism is arranged on the outer wall of the rising balloon and is used for cutting the rising balloon when the task execution device is recovered; wherein the buoyancy of the recovery balloon is less than the total gravity of the load of the gondola. The application has the advantages of simple structure, low cost and convenient operation, compared with the traditional mode of recovering the gondola load by using a parachute, the application has fewer interference factors when the gondola load is recovered, and the recovery efficiency of the task execution device is improved.

This invention discloses an autonomous and recoverable sounding device, belonging to the fields of aerospace technology and meteorological detection technology. The device mainly includes a shell assembly, variator wings, aerodynamic adjustment components, internal structure, connecting parts, a radio frequency module, solenoid valves, and exposed sensor fairings, and can be connected to a high-altitude balloon. The device adopts a variator aircraft layout, adapting to high-altitude strong wind environments and maximizing flight efficiency by changing the layout of the variator wings; a retractable connecting part is provided at the tail to realize the connection and disconnection of the recoverable sounding device from the high-altitude balloon; this invention achieves autonomous recovery of the sounding device, which helps to improve environmental pollution and biological threats, and solves the problems of uncontrollable landing points, high cost, and limited data transmission capabilities; it also has significant advantages such as stable structure, convenient operation, strong detection capabilities, and high reliability of detection data.

The present invention discloses a high-altitude balloon radar reflector and its manufacturing process in the technical field of composite material products, including a composite material mounting plate. A number of circular embedded holes are provided on the composite material mounting plate, and square embedded parts are filled in the embedded holes. An array of reflection units is installed on the embedded parts. The present invention reduces the weight of the high-altitude balloon radar reflector, improves the accuracy, and reduces the cost.

The invention relates to the technical field of spaceflight, and particularly discloses a high-altitude balloon carrying and releasing powered unmanned aerial vehicle which comprises a sounding balloon releasing system and a powered unmanned aerial vehicle body. The sounding balloon releasing system comprises an air bag, an air bag rope, a load cabin and a releasing system composed of a releasing frame, a rope and a control system, and is used for carrying the powered unmanned aerial vehicle to a preset height and releasing the unmanned aerial vehicle. The powered unmanned aerial vehicle adopts a conventional aerodynamic layout of a middle single wing and comprises a fuselage, wings, a horizontal tail and a vertical tail. The powered unmanned aerial vehicle is carried by the sounding balloon to lift off, and in the super-high-altitude rarefied air environment, stable flight and data acquisition tasks can be achieved by means of the design of the wings with the large lift-drag ratio and the large aspect ratio and a power device of the powered unmanned aerial vehicle. According to the invention, the problems of high cost and complicated launching of the existing superaltitude unmanned aerial vehicle platform are solved, and a high-altitude detection scheme with low cost, flexible deployment and stable flight is provided.

The application relates to the technical field of high-altitude aircraft launching, and provides a high-altitude balloon launching shelter and a launching method. The high-altitude balloon launching shelter comprises a shelter body, a high-altitude balloon arranged in the shelter body, a cable winding and unwinding assembly arranged in the shelter body, a first cutting piece arranged at a first cable, an inflation assembly arranged in the shelter body, a lifting assembly arranged in the shelter body, a gondola connected with the high-altitude balloon, and a control assembly connected with the cable winding and unwinding assembly, the first cutting piece, the inflation assembly and the lifting assembly. According to the high-altitude balloon launching shelter and the launching method, the automation degree of high-altitude balloon launching is improved, and the high-altitude balloon launching shelter is convenient to transport and quickly deploy.

Balloon launching systems and methods relating thereto are described. A method of launching a balloon includes securing a balloon to an everting platform and disposing the platform within a launch chamber having an inflatable tubular membrane. The everting platform couples to the inflatable tubular membrane such that the balloon is positioned inside a launch cavity while a pressurization cavity is defined adjacent thereto. Lifting gas is dispensed into and sealed within the balloon. The pressurization cavity is pressurized to an everting pressure causing the inflatable tubular membrane to evert and extend above a balloon launching end of the launch chamber. The everting membrane accelerates the inflated balloon toward the launching end and surrounds and shields the balloon from cross-winds and ground obstacles. The balloon is released after membrane extension.

An example reusable high-altitude balloon system includes a balloon with a first end supporting a payload and a second end with an aperture and an apex fitting that is positioned within the aperture. A clamp applies a pressure to a plurality of pleated folds formed in the perimeter of the aperture around the apex fitting to form an air-tight seal against the balloon at the perimeter of the aperture. The reusable high-altitude balloon system further includes control circuitry that controllably releases the apex fitting from the balloon to initiate a descent sequence.

The application provides a high altitude balloon launching method and a composite high altitude balloon. The high altitude balloon launching method comprises the following steps: putting the high altitude balloon into a windproof air bag, and connecting the high altitude balloon, a cable and a gondola in sequence; arranging winch pull ropes on the periphery of the windproof air bag, and arranging cutters on the winch pull ropes respectively; filling air into the windproof air bag and filling helium into the high altitude balloon, and controlling the pressure difference between the windproof air bag and the high altitude balloon within a preset pressure difference range after the filling is completed; releasing the windproof air bag and synchronously releasing the winch pull ropes; cutting the winch pull ropes by using the cutters when the distance between the gondola and the ground is greater than a first safety height; and detaching the windproof air bag to make the windproof air bag separate from the high altitude balloon when the distance between the gondola and the ground is greater than a second safety height. The high altitude balloon launching method and the composite high altitude balloon provided by the application aim to solve the problem that the wind resistance of the high altitude balloon is weak and the high altitude balloon is easy to be damaged in the launching process in the prior art.

To enable the desired altitude control without complicating or increasing the size of the altitude control device structure. [Solution] The reactor 1 for high-altitude balloons comprises a gas flow section 11 having an internal space, a float gas source housing section 2 provided in an airtight and watertight manner on one axial end of the gas flow section 11 and housing a float gas source inside, and a reaction liquid housing section 12 provided in an airtight and watertight manner on the other axial end of the gas flow section 11 and storing a reaction liquid inside that chemically reacts with the float gas source to generate float gas, and further comprises a rotation control device 4 that integrally controls the rotation of the reactor 1 at a predetermined angle.

The invention discloses a balloon suspension high-altitude wind wheel ground power generation device and method, and relates to the technical field of high-altitude wind energy, the balloon suspension high-altitude wind wheel ground power generation device comprises a high-altitude balloon component, a high-altitude wind direction suspension component, a high-altitude wind wheel power component and a ground power generation component, the upper portion of the machine frame is connected with the high-altitude wind direction hanging component, and the high-altitude wind direction hanging component is connected with the high-altitude balloon component. According to the balloon suspension high-altitude wind wheel ground power generation device and method, the high-altitude balloon and the high-altitude suspension height can be adjusted at any time according to needs, and the high-altitude rotating wind wheel can be kept in a windward state at any time through the high-altitude suspension wheel disc to improve the rotating speed and the power generation efficiency; the device can continuously and enduringly operate at high altitude for a long time to drive a generator on the ground to generate power on the ground so as to form a large-scale industry.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to manufacturing a balloon envelope for use in a stratospheric balloon system. For instance, a stream of polyethylene mixture is extruded through an extruder in order to orient molecules of polymer chains of polyethylene and to provide an oriented film. The oriented film is passed through an electron beam and thereby crosslinking the polymer chains to provide a cross-linked film. The cross-linked film is heat sealed to form the balloon envelope.

The present invention provides a dual-vector steering device, including a pitch mechanism and a yaw mechanism. By controlling the pitch servo motor and the yaw servo motor, the pitch mechanism and the yaw mechanism are rotated in the horizontal plane and the vertical plane respectively, the propeller thrust direction is adjusted, and the flight attitude of the high-altitude balloon is adjusted. The dual-vector steering device provided by the present invention is connected to the tail of the high-altitude balloon through a mounting flange, the controller is started, and the pitch and yaw angles are input into the controller to control the pitch servo motor and the yaw servo motor to achieve the attitude adjustment of the high-altitude balloon. The use of servo motors and reasonable mechanism design makes the dual-vector steering mechanism of the high-altitude balloon respond quickly during operation, and has the characteristics of light weight, high reliability, and strong environmental adaptability.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to manufacturing a balloon envelope for use in a stratospheric balloon system using an improved double-bubble blown-film extrusion process with water quenching and electron beam processing. A stream of polyethylene mixture is extruded through an extruder to orient molecules of polymer chains and provide an oriented film. The oriented film is passed through an electron beam, crosslinking the polymer chains to produce a cross-linked film with enhanced mechanical properties. The cross-linked film is heat sealed to form the balloon envelope comprising multiple gores. The resulting balloon envelope exhibits superior characteristics including crystallinity greater than 50%, strength to weight ratio greater than 1 MPa / (dtg / cm3), thickness less than 1.5 mil, thermal emissivity less than 0.03 at 193K, and optical clarity greater than 95%. The manufacturing process may include water quenching to enhance optical clarity and dual electron beam treatment for uniform crosslinking throughout the film thickness.

Described herein are features for a high altitude lighter-than-air (LTA) system and associated methods. A zero-pressure balloon (ZPB) is attached in tandem with one or more air super-pressure balloons (SPB). The ZPB provides lift for the system while the SPB may provide a variable amount of ballast air by pumping in or expelling out ambient air. Various advanced performance targets relating to ascent rate, descent rate, range and maximum altitude are achievable with various scaled versions of the basic design of the LTA system. Advanced navigation and control techniques, such as more efficient high altitude station-keeping approaches, made possible with the LTA system are also described.

The present invention discloses a balloon-borne hanging launch system based on a combined unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising: a combined unmanned aerial vehicle provided with a flight control system; a high-altitude balloon connected to the combined unmanned aerial vehicle by a rope; a rope cutter fixed to the back of the combined unmanned aerial vehicle, and the rope is connected to the rope cutter; wherein, the combined unmanned aerial vehicle enters a cruising state after rising to a predetermined height by the buoyancy of the high-altitude balloon. The balloon-borne hanging launch system based on the combined unmanned aerial vehicle provided by the present invention waits for the balloon together with the combined unmanned aerial vehicle to rise to a predetermined height, and then remotely controls the rope cutter to cut the rope to separate the balloon from the unmanned aerial vehicle, so as to complete the launch of the combined unmanned aerial vehicle, saving the energy consumed by a general combined unmanned aerial vehicle during ground taxiing or catapult takeoff.

The invention discloses an anti-ultraviolet and creep-resistant stratospheric high-altitude balloon material, which comprises a fiber base cloth; the composite film layer is bonded and fixed on the surface of the fiber base cloth, the composite film layer is a multi-layer co-extrusion film, the composite film layer comprises a polyether polyurethane layer, a polyether polyurethane composite layer, a PFA layer and a PFA composite layer which are sequentially arranged from bottom to top in a covering mode, and the polyether polyurethane layer is arranged on the surface of the fiber base cloth in a covering mode. Compared with the prior art, the problem that stable flight of the high-altitude balloon is affected by insufficient anti-ultraviolet and creep resistance at low temperature (-50 to-80 DEG C) or high temperature (50 to 100 DEG C) of the material is solved.

The application relates to the technical field of high-altitude aircraft launching technology, and provides a high-altitude balloon inflating device and a launching shelter. The high-altitude balloon inflating device comprises a self-sealing valve, the self-sealing valve is installed on a high-altitude balloon, a cavity is formed in the self-sealing valve, a connecting channel is arranged at a first end of the self-sealing valve, a gas outlet communicating with the cavity is arranged at a second end of the self-sealing valve, the gas outlet communicates with the high-altitude balloon, an elastic switch element is arranged in the cavity, an inflating hard pipe is movable relative to the connecting channel, so that the elastic switch element is switched between an open state and a closed state, in the open state, the inflating hard pipe abuts against the elastic switch element, the inflating hard pipe communicates with the cavity, in the closed state, the cavity does not communicate with the inflating hard pipe and the outside world, a clamping assembly is clamped with the self-sealing valve in the open state. According to the high-altitude balloon inflating device, the high-altitude balloon is automatically sealed, so that the inflating hard pipe and the high-altitude balloon are automatically separated.

The embodiment of the invention provides a high-altitude balloon identification method and device based on a ground radar. The method comprises the following steps: establishing a Lagrange particle release diffusion model; acquiring track point information of a to-be-identified high-altitude target; using a Lagrange particle release diffusion model to predict the trajectory of the high-altitude target to be identified; and identifying whether the high-altitude target is a high-altitude balloon or not according to a trajectory point similarity algorithm. In addition, the embodiment of the invention provides a high-altitude balloon recognition device based on the ground radar.

The utility model discloses a controllable detonating device of a high-altitude balloon for target range meteorological measurement, which comprises a ground signal transmitting device and a detonating device arranged on the high-altitude balloon, and a sonde is carried on the high-altitude balloon; wherein the ground signal transmitting device is arranged in a ground station and comprises a trigger and a wireless signal transmitting antenna, the trigger is used for issuing a detonating instruction automatically or through an operator, and the wireless signal transmitting antenna is used for transmitting the detonating instruction to a detonating device carried on a high-altitude balloon; the detonating device comprises a signal receiver, an ignition circuit and an ignition head, the signal receiver is used for receiving a detonating instruction sent by the ground signal sending device, the ignition circuit is used for generating ignition current according to the detonating instruction, and the ignition current detonates the explosive in the ignition head so as to explode the high-altitude balloon. The flying position and height of the high-altitude balloon are controlled in a detonating mode, and the high-altitude balloon is prevented from influencing a route or an aircraft.