Interview with Dr. Chris Yoder

Narration:

Transcript:

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Hi, Chris.

Thank you so much for joining us.

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Thank you for having me.

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So you're part of NASA's

Balloon Program.

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What is the difference

between a NASA Scientific Balloon versus

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a regular hot air balloon?

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Good question.

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So, hot air balloons are air filled

and the air is heated

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to create the buoyancy of the lift

that gives them flight.

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Generally,

they float at a couple thousand feet

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and they go up and down

in a matter of hours.

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Scientific Balloons,

on the other hand, are quite different.

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So, our largest balloons can fit

a football field inside their equator,

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and they can fly for much longer.

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So, payload capacity is

about 8,000 pounds -

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several SUVs. The duration can

be up to five

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or six weeks at a time, and the altitudes

can be up to 160,000 feet,

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about four or five times

the height of a commercial airliner.

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Wow. What a difference.

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Yeah, that's incredible.

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And you launch all over the globe.

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So you launch from New Mexico

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in the US, New Zealand,

and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

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Why do you launch

from all those different places?

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In short,

we go where the science needs us to go.

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Some scientists need northern hemisphere.

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Science for galaxies and star formations.

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That's why we go to Sweden.

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Same thing in the southern hemisphere.

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That's why we go to Antarctica.

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Most missions

need some kind of trial or test system,

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so they'll fly from New Mexico

to prove their science or

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or even just collect science

at a shorter duration.

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And then for missions

that are a little more risky,

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we'll go out to PMRF in Hawaii.

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So can you describe to me

what launch days like?

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it's an incredible feeling. Right?

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So, you see the balloon be released.

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You hear the rustle of fabric

and the rush of the wind

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as it stands up. You see the

balloon be released

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from the vehicle and ascend.

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And it's just - it just gives you chills

every time you watch it.

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It's a really great feeling.

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That sounds incredible.

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So how many of these balloon experiments

have been Sun focused or eclipse focused?

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So, about 8 to 10% of our portfolio

is heliophysics missions.

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One of the ones that stands out in

my mind is one

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I got to see launch in 2019

from New Mexico.

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It's called The BITSE Mission,

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and it was looking at the corona,

or the kind of the outer edge of the Sun,

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and looking at how that behaves

under different conditions.

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That sounds amazing.

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Thank you so much for joining us.

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Thanks again for having me.