Grant: Alliance Grants

The main goal of this project is to enable the design and deployment of a novel unmanned glider platform for stratospheric flight. The glider will be launched via a lighter-than-air balloon to deliver up to 5 kg of payload to an altitude of approximately 35 km, where it will be released for the desired data collection during an autonomously controlled descent to a set location. The project is performed in collaboration with Statodynamics Aviation Inc., who provides unique high-altitude flight services for a wide arrange of earth observation, testing, and monitoring missions using autonomous aerial vehicles. The new glider platform is aimed to address the rapidly growing demand for cost-effective, high-altitude measurements required for a variety of earth observation missions, including atmosphere sampling, meteorological measurements, and monitoring of local environmental pollution, as well as calibration of surface- and space-based communication equipment and technology development prior to space deployment. It offers significant advantages over the currently used free-drift probes by providing controlled tests capabilities, ensuring payload retrieval, and significantly reducing the environmental footprint. However, the design of such a glider is associated with unique, multidisciplinary research challenges in the areas of aerodynamics and communications, which are addressed in the present proposal. The results will enable controlled glider operation over an unprecedently wide range of operating conditions, provide reliable positioning and control, and ensure robust communication and data transfer.