Recent Highlights of Scientific Ballooning in Japan

Abstract

Since 2008, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has carried out annual domestic balloon campaigns from Taiki Aerospace Research Field (TARF). Productive results have been obtained by many projects in academic fields such as atmospheric science, space engineering, cosmic-ray physics, and astronomy. In 2013, an 80,000-m3 balloon made from a 2.8-[Formula: see text]m ultra-thin polyethylene film reached an altitude of 53.7 km, equaling the world record for the altitude of an unmanned balloon. In 2015, JAXA carried out a balloon campaign from Alice Springs in Australia as a precursor of future sustainable overseas activities to compliment the domestic ones at TARF. In this paper, we discuss recent highlights of and future prospects for Japanese scientific ballooning.