Svalbard Expedition 2020

For the Svalbard Expedition we will collaborate with Sint-Pieterscollege Jette and two British schools, i.e. St. Paul’s School in London and Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School located in Kent. The expedition consists of several missions.

First of all a ground experiment which will run for three months on the roof of Kjell Henriksen Observatory. Using the Iridium Global Network, we want to receive the measured info a few times a day.

Our second mission is to perform a long-duration circumpolar flight. We will be launching a zero pressure balloon in Svalbard, Norway, located 78° N, because of this we can take advantage of the cyclonic winds around the North Pole. We, the Space Heading Deezers and the other participating schools, will send experiments with the zero pressure balloon. We will be sending a spectrometer, similar to the one we are using for Asgard.

We will also launch an Aeroclipper system. This is a balloon designed to perform measurements in the top layer of the ocean. A set of sensors will be underwater, but not sink because of the balloon attached. We will launch an aeroclipper, attached to a buoy, in the bay outside Longyearbyen harbor.

Finally we will launch a sounding balloon, just like we will do for Asgard. This balloon will also contain several experiments.