For MASCO (Telescopio de Mascara Codificada)

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Launch site:Aeródromo de Nova Ponte, Minas Gerais, Brasil  
Launch team: SLB
Balloon: Open balloon (zero pressure)
Volume: Raven 1.200.000 m3
Serial number: -
Flight identification number: -
Campaign: - 
Payload weight: ~ 2000 kgs
Gondola weight: -
Overall weight: -

The balloon was launched at 2:04 am on April 1st, 2004, from the air strip of the Nova Ponte airfield, a tiny city of the Minas Gerais state.

The craft was launched by dynamic method with the help of a crane acting as launch vehicle.

After a nominal ascent phase, the balloon achieved float altitude near 40 km of height and started a very slowly drift to the west.

At daybreak, started de telecomanded operation of the telescope and after near 11 hours of stable flight (half of the time flight expected) was sent the separation command. The payload parachuted to the ground and landed in a farm located near Capinópolis close to the border of the Goias state.

The balloon flown on this flight was the biggest one flown on all history of the brazilian scientific balloon program.  

MASCO (Telescopio de Mascara Codificada)

Responsable institution:  INPE (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais)
Principal Investigator:  Dr. Thyrso Villela Neto

A balloon-borne gamma-ray experiment, which is an instrument designed to obtain images of cosmic sources.

The MASCO experiment employs a Modified Uniformly Redundant Array coded mask (hence her name) and a NaI(Tl) position sensitive detector.

More than simply an instrument MASCO, has been one of the most important astronomy and astrophysics projects developed in Brazil of the last decade.

In addition to the development of the system of obtaining of images, it was necessary also to develop an automatic system that during the flight, pointed the telescope towards the target objective. This attitude control system was designed to provide a few arcminutes pointing and stabilization for a ~ 2,000 kg, 7-m high, 2-m wide, 2-m deep gondola that encompasses the telescope and its associated electronics.