Thermal design and performance of the balloon-borne large aperture submillimeter telescope for polarimetry BLASTPol

We present the thermal model of the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol). This instrument was successfully own in two circumpolar flights from McMurdo, Antarctica in 2010 and 2012. During these two flights, BLASTPol obtained unprecedented information about the magnetic field in molecular clouds through the measurement of the polarized thermal emission of interstellar dust grains. The thermal design of the experiment addresses the stability and control of the payload necessary for this kind of measurement. We describe the thermal modeling of the payload including the sun-shielding strategy. We present the in-flight thermal performance of the instrument and compare the predictions of the model with the temperatures registered during the flight. We describe the difficulties of modeling the thermal behavior of the balloon-borne platform and establish landmarks that can be used in the design of future balloon-borne instruments.

[1]  V. V. Hristov,et al.  The BOOMERANG North America Instrument: A Balloon-borne Bolometric Radiometer Optimized for Measurements of Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropies from 0.°3 to 4° , 2001, astro-ph/0105148.

[2]  Don W. Green,et al.  Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook , 2007 .

[3]  F. Adams,et al.  Star Formation in Molecular Clouds: Observation and Theory , 1987 .

[4]  M. Truch,et al.  The balloon-borne large aperture submillimeter telescope , 2007 .

[5]  L. Kauder,et al.  Spacecraft Thermal Control Coatings References , 2005 .

[6]  A. Abdel-azim.  Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer , 2011 .

[7]  A. E. Wright,et al.  THEORY OF STAR FORMATION. , 1970 .

[8]  V. V. Hristov,et al.  BOOMERANG: A Balloon-borne Millimeter-Wave Telescope and Total Power Receiver for Mapping Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background , 2002, astro-ph/0206254.

[9]  D. Schlegel,et al.  Maps of Dust Infrared Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Foregrounds , 1998 .

[10]  K. Saha,et al.  The Earth's Atmosphere: Its Physics and Dynamics , 2008 .

[11]  C. B. Netterfield,et al.  The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry-BLASTPol: performance and results from the 2012 Antarctic flight , 2014, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[12]  J. Curry,et al.  Encyclopedia of atmospheric sciences , 2002 .

[13]  Matthew Joseph Griffin,et al.  Blast - a Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope , 2000, astro-ph/0012327.

[14]  Frank P. Incropera,et al.  Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer , 1981 .

[15]  J. J. Bock,et al.  Design and construction of a carbon fiber gondola for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope , 2014, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.