For ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter)

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Launch site:Williams Field, McMurdo Base, Antarctica  
Launch team: National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF)
Balloon: Open balloon (zero pressure)
Volume: Raven 29X - 1.000.000 m3
Serial number: -
Flight identification number: 515N
Campaign: - 
Payload weight: 3845 lbs
Gondola weight: -
Overall weight: 4927 lbs

The balloon was launched by dynamic method December 29th, 2002 at 4:59 UTC and reached float altitude 8:10 UTC on the same day, strating an anti-clockwise path around the Antarctic Plateau.

After 19 days and 21 hours of flight the payload was cut down from the balloon at 2:01 utc of January 18th 2003 at 74º 40' S - 160º 19' E while flying at 124.700 ft. Impact of the payload was at 2:36 utc at 74º 38' S 160º 25' E.

The payload tipped over on landing onto its stern, where the antenna boom was mounted and was dragged about 60 ft before the parachute was cut.

The chase plane and recovery crew landed near the payload but spent only about 10 min on the ground to disconnect the battery and the solar panels, close the gas bottles and get the disks from MSFC cut out since they were very easy to get to in that position. Were necessary another 3 trips to recover the rest of the ATIC payload.  

ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter)

Responsable institution:  Louisiana State University
Principal Investigator:  Dr. John P. Wefel

An instrument composed mainly by a ionization calorimeter with the objective of to measure the cosmic ray proton and helium spectra from below 5 x 1010 eV to more than 1014 eV, with statistical accuracy better than 30% at the highest energy.

This unique coverage with a single instrument, will enable the scientists to investigate the spectral difference between hydrogen and helium, and identify any spectral breaks over a broad energy range.

In addition, ATIC filled an existing gap in measurements of the proton/alpha ratio between observations below 100 GeV and the highest emulsion chamber energies.

Concurrently, ATIC will measure the spectra of nuclei up to iron, with individual element resolution and superior energy resolution.