STRATOBUS: A MULTIUSER PLATFORM SYSTEM FOR MAKING ACCESS TO LDB FLIGHT EASIER AND CHEAPER

Interest in Long-Duration Ballooning (LDB) and, recently, in Ultra-Long-Duration Ballooning (ULDB as a means of performing experiments over a long duration of time at high altitudes) has grown over the years. These LDB trajectories are possible thanks to the polar vortex (both poles can be considered during a given period of the year). Other than the already operative Antarctica base at McMurdo, long missions can now rely on the upcoming launch base facilities on the Svalbard Islands. Their completion and subsequent availability will be a great occasion for the European scientific community. The STRATOBUS idea, if realized, should be capable of modifying its general structure by trying to fit, and not to exceed, the real needs of a given campaign. An organization of this type can launch balloons from any possible site of the world, even those requiring a flexible organization due to certain regional peculiarities. The project can manage platforms for housing either single or multi-experiments because it has the ability to produce a sort of standard in designing every part of the gondola system: a standard means for optimizing, reusing resources and, where possible, for sharing the room, on a stratospheric flight, between as much experiment as possible. Contrary to the recent past, the STRATOBUS organization will be able to look for "clients and/or experiments" within a world-wide audience and indicate the ride cost as function of the weight, volume and bit-rate required only. The Project should be ready to indicate any short-and mid-term programs, by mean of a dedicate web site, and be interactive by showing, in real time, the availability of the room for rent, flight by flight and campaign by campaign. The scientific world has to rely on regular scheduled missions in order to lead and develop research programs. The STRATOBUS Project has indicated a way in which to decrease the overall costs for a Balloon campaign. Every effort should be addressed to making research by balloons competitive with other means The authors now are ready to collaborate with an international consortium aimed at optimizing efforts by designing all the devices borne to help arranging different experiments.