HASP 2010: SPARTAN-V

Mission Statement

SPARTAN-V is working towards the eventual goal of supporting very precise photometry from balloon-borne telescopes. This mission focuses on the specific problem of characterizing atmospheric scintillation and extinction in order to support the feasibility of observing exoplanets transiting stars from the stratosphere with a signal to noise ratio of 10⁵. To achieve this, SPARTAN-V will sense platform stability in order to point at a bright star measure that star’s photometric output.  In this way, SPARTAN-V will create a telescopic pointing system capable of astronomical observing for future payloads.

Mission Objective

The SPARTAN-V Mission is to be able to characterize the extinction and scintillation of a star at an altitude of 120,000 feet.  This means that as light from a star comes into the 0.5 percent of the remaining atmosphere at that altitude, how much of the light from a star is refracted and redirected from an optical device.  This requires the development of a pointing system capable of viewing that star to collect enough images to characterize this.  The eventual goal of SPARTAN-V is to determine if exoplanets are detectable from balloon based observatories.

Launch Logistics

SPARTAN-V was launched successfully from Ft. Sumner New Mexico on September 8th, 2011.

Data and Analysis

Below are both the data analysis report and presentation with complete data and results from the 2010 HASP launch.

SPARTAN-V Final Analysis Presentation

SPARTAN-V Final Analysis Report