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FAQ

The reason LDB flights take place in Antarctica is that the standard zero-pressure balloons loose altitude dramatically when the helium cools at sunset. Antarctica in December and January have no sunset. Also, the winds over the continent set up the circular path around the pole only about mid-December, and flights need to terminate by about mid-January so recovery can take place before Antarctica starts having sunsets and much colder weather.

Ultra-Long Duration Balloons are currently in development, and will be super-pressurized in order to maintain a similar altitude regardless of sunrises and sunsets. This is important because it would allow for balloon flights at any latitude.

If TIGER wasn't large enough to collect certain data, why didn't you make Super-TIGER even bigger?

Super-TIGER is substantially larger than TIGER (4x larger, in fact). However, for transportation and weight issues, any larger would not have been feasible as Super-TIGER is already approaching the weight-limit for the balloon.

Why wait two years before another flight?

There is a two-year delay between flights in order to begin analysis of the data and make improvements to the instrument if necessary.

How long do you stay in Antarctica?

It depends on who you are. The engineers need to be there only for assembly and launch, whereas many of the scientists involved must stay through recovery.