The violation of U.S. airspace strained already tense relations between the U.S. and China, prompting the cancellation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to the country. Throughout the ordeal, Chinese officials maintained the device was nothing more than a wayward weather balloon, which the Pentagon quickly called out as nonsense.
But the whole situation got us asking, "In the age of satellites and sensors, who even uses balloons anymore? What, is this 1937?" Turns out, there's more than a few ways to put the "old-school" tech to "new-school" uses.
For years, the U.S. government has used balloons as a tool to acquire all sorts of information. In fact, the first use of balloons in a government-related capacity was on June 23, 1861, by Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe, to ferry information between soldiers in the midst of the Civil War. By October 1861, President Lincoln named Lowe chief aeronaut of theUnion Army Balloon Corps.
Since then, balloon technology has evolved and is now being used to analyze all sorts of data.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALLOONS
“Twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide. This includes 92 released by theNational Weather Service (NWS) in the U.S. and its territories,” according to the National Weather Service’s website.
Weather balloon flights can last up to two hours, drift up to 125 miles away and rise to over 100,000 feet in the atmosphere, the website states.
Last year, for example, during Hurricane Ian, the National Weather Service launched weather balloons every six hours to capture atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed data through a piece of equipment called a radiosonde, which is attached to the balloon.
The radiosonde transmitted data to tracking equipment every one to two seconds, providing information about wind speed and direction to the NWS.
NASA’S SCIENTIFIC BALLOONING PROGRAM
For more than 30 years,NASA’s Scientific Ballooning Program has conducted several high-altitude scientific and technological investigations.
Under the program, large, unmanned helium balloons are used to take payloads, such as telescopes and other instruments, into space. These tools are then used to monitor scientific observations in the field — like the appearance of hard X-rays, gamma-rays, infrared astronomy, cosmic rays and other atmospheric occurrences.
In 2009, for example, three long-duration, sub-orbital flights were launched and operated in Antarctica to investigate the nature of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and search for anti-matter.
Meanwhile, in fall 2022, the program launched six scientific, engineering and student balloon flights to support 17 different missions — the flights took off from Fort Sumner, N.M., from mid-August through mid-October.
DoD USES BALLOONS TO TRACK DRUG SMUGGLING
In January 2022, the Department of Defense (DoD) agreed to spend $52.2 million on the “operation and maintenance” of as many as 18 blimps, also called persistent threat detection systems (PTDS), or simply “aerostats,” according to aGizmodo article.
These high-tech balloons are outfitted with high-capacity sensors and cameras, can rise to 15,000 feet and record ground activity if needed.
In this case, the balloons were being used to detect and monitor drug-smuggling operations, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS)request approved on Dec. 21, 2022, by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
Per the agreement, “DHS will fund the operation and upkeep of six 17-meter blimps owned by the U.S. Border Patrol plus a dozen 22-meter blimps owned by the Defense Department over the next fiscal year,” the article stated.
COULD BALLOONS BE USED TO TRACK EARTHQUAKES?
According to American Geophysical Union (AGU) researchers, the answer is yes.
In July 2022, the AGU published areport detailing “the first detection of a large, distant earthquake in a network of balloon-bound pressure sensors in the stratosphere.”
The technology works when an earthquake hits; the resulting vibration sends infrasound high into the atmosphere, where balloons capture and analyze this data, according to aphys.org article.
So, how does this apply to the government?
Based on these findings, “a proposal for balloon-based seismic monitoring on Venus, called Phantom, will be submitted to the New Frontiers NASA missions in collaboration with JPL-NASA and North Carolina State University,” the article stated.
Meaning NASA could soon use this technology to monitor earthquakes on other planets.
REPLICATING BACTERIA INTERACTIONS ON MARS
Ever wonder how different bacteria would survive on Mars? NASA has, resulting in them launching high-altitude balloons into the stratosphere with metal tags coated in bacteria.
The experiment, which involved more than 50 high-altitude balloons soaring up to 100,000 feet in the sky across the U.S., was carried out in 2017 during a total solar eclipse.
In addition to carrying metal tags coated in bacteria, the balloons also took up Raspberry Pi cameras, weather sensors and modems to livestream the eclipse.
“Every time we send a rover to the red planet, our own microorganisms latch on to them and hitch a ride across space. What happens to these bacteria once they’re on Mars? Do they mutate? Do they die? Or can they continue living undisturbed, colonizing worlds other than our own? To answer these questions, we need to run experiments here on Earth, and the eclipse on Aug. 21st provides the perfect opportunity,” aVerge article said at the time.
INSPECTING OIL PIPELINES
According to the Wall Street Journal, a Tucson, Ariz., company called World View Enterprises Inc. “has launched more than 120 high-altitude balloon missions in the last decade,” including rigged balloons with cameras to inspect natural gas and oil pipelines and sensors to check the atmosphere for different gases.
“Balloons hover far closer to Earth than satellites’ orbits, enabling them to gather higher-quality data,” said Ryan Hartman, president and CEO of World View Enterprises, in the article.
As for working with the government, the company said in the article "it has provided its remote sensing services to civilian and government agencies and private companies.”
BROADENING COMMUNICATION OPPORTUNITIES
According to a 2018 MIT Technology Review article, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on a wind sensor to allow devices in its Adaptable Lighter Than Air balloon program to spot wind speed and direction from afar in order to make adjustments to stay in one spot.
The benefit of creating this, the article said, is that these sensors — combined with the use of solar power — could allow stratospheric balloons to operate like low-cost satellites and provide communication opportunities for remote or disaster-hit areas, monitor weather events or pollution at sea.
This has been difficult to achieve in the past due to changing winds causing balloons to drift. However, these sensors look to mitigate that issue.
TRACKING HYPERSONIC WEAPONS
Last year, the Pentagon announced it would add high-altitude inflatables like balloons to its arsenal to potentially track hypersonic weapons.
“High or very high-altitude platforms have a lot of benefit for their endurance on station, maneuverability and also flexibility for multiple payloads,” said Tom Karako, senior fellow for the International Security Program and Missile Defense Project director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a Politico article.
The article also stated that in the last two years, the Pentagon has spent approximately $3.8 million on balloon projects and plans to spend $27.1 million in FY 2023.
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE OZONE
Since 2005, the Maryland Department of the Environment has worked alongside Howard University’s Climate and Radiation Group to take ozonesonde measurements to gain more information about pollution levels and its impact on Maryland’s air quality.
For context, an ozonesonde is a lightweight instrument attached to a balloon to measure atmospheric ozone. In this case, the ozonesondes are tied to a 50-foot string and suspended beneath a free-flying weather balloon to collect and transmit data.
According to the state’s website, these measurements are collected to create “vertical profiles of ozone, temperature and relative humidity to help determine the magnitude of ozone being transported into Maryland.”
HIGH ALTITUDE STUDENT PLATFORM
To foster students’ knowledge about aerospace careers, HASP — also known as a “High Altitude Student Platform” — was created through a partnership between the state of Louisiana, the Louisiana Space Consortium and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF).
The platform allows small-volume, zero-pressure balloons to carry 12 student-built payloads at a time to an altitude of approximately 36 kilometers for around 15 to 20 hours.
“The payloads carried by HASP are designed and built by students and are used to flight-test compact satellites or prototypes and to fly other small experiments,” the program’s websitestates.
On Sept. 8, 2022, students launched one of these balloons from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in New Mexico.
