BOPPS (Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science)

The Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) was a stratospheric balloon mission developed for NASA Planetary Science and was designed to demonstrate gondola and payload systems for balloon-borne planetary astronomy to achieve fundamental science objectives.

BOPPS is a stabilized pointing platform mounting an 80-cm telescope on a gondola capable of operating at 110,000 to 140,000 feet, above most of the atmosphere's water and carbon dioxide. Because it is at such a high altitude, BOPPS can see wavelengths of light which are blocked by the atmosphere from reaching the ground. BOPPS is designed to measure water and carbon dioxide from comets at infrared wavelengths in the 2.5 to 5 micron range, which cannot be seen from the ground because of atmospheric absorption.

The primary science objectives of the BOPPS mission were to measure CO2 and H2O emissions from the Oort Cloud Comets C/2013A1 Siding Spring and C/2012K1 PanSTARRS. The entire mission endured 17 hours to heights over 127,000 feet. The gondola and payloads functioned well, and sufficient science and engineering data were collected to achieve the top-level mission objectives.

Balloon launched on: 9/25/2014 at 14:27 utc
Launch site: Scientific Flight Balloon Facility, Fort Sumner, (NM), US  
Balloon launched by: Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon  
Flight identification number: 654N
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 9/26/2014 at 11:37 utc
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 21 h 10 m
Landing site: W of Amarillo, Texas, US

• BOPPS website Johns Hopkins University
• Current Status of a NASA High-Altitude Balloon-Based Observatory for Planetary Science Aviation 2015 Conference; 22-26 Jun. 2015; Dallas, TX
• Near-space operation of compact CsI, CLYC, and CeBr3 sensors: Results from two high-altitude balloon flights Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol 905, Pag. 33 (2018)
• Planetary Science with Balloon-Borne Telescopes ESA Symposium on European Rockets and Balloon Programmes and Related Research; 2015; Tromso; Norway
• Stratospheric balloon observations of comets C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), C/2014 E2 (Jacques), and Ceres Icarus, Volume 281, p. 404
• Stratospheric Balloons for Planetary Science and the Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) Mission Summary  IEEE Aerospace; 7-14 Mar. 2015; Big Sky, MT; United States