@article{b058399138d644a5bd15cfa25e0fe945,
title = "SuperTIGER-2 2018 Flight Payload Recovery and Preliminary Instrument Assessment",
abstract = "The SuperTIGER (Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) experiment was launched for the second time from the Long Duration Balloon (LDB) site near McMurdo Station, Antarctica on December 20, 2018 at 1:36 AM NZDT. The balloon reached a peak altitude of ∼79,300 ft before it began to descend, and the flight had to be terminated after just over six hours aloft. The payload landed at 8:17 AM NZDT approximately 150 miles from McMurdo Station at 75.80 S and 161.68 E. Satellite imagery of the site revealed that it was in a crevasse field, but a Twin Otter reconnaissance flight showed none in the immediate vicinity. A subsequent site survey by a team flown in by helicopter with ground penetrating radar was able to flag a safe zone including helicopter landing sites. The SuperTIGER-2 payload was recovered in two days with two Bell 212 helicopters followed by one day with a Basler, which involved transferring the payload to a safe fixed wing landing site roughly two miles away in three helicopter sling loads. After return to the LDB site the instrument modules were reassembled, rewired and tested prior to their being shipped north. The instrument was found to be in overall good condition, with all testable electronics channels working, and minimal mechanical damage. SuperTIGER-2 could be refurbished to fly again as early as this next Antarctic season.",
author = "Rauch, {B. F.} and Bose, {R. G.} and West, {A. T.} and L. Lisalda and Q. Abarr and Binns, {W. R.} and Braun, {D. L.} and Dowkontt, {P. F.} and Israel, {M. H.} and Simburger, {G. E.} and Walsh, {N. E.} and Zober, {W. V.} and Y. Akaike and Brandt, {T. J.} and Fitzsimmons, {S. P.} and T. Hams and Link, {J. T.} and Mitchell, {J. W.} and K. Sakai and Sebastian, {F. San} and M. Sasaki and Labrador, {A. W.} and Mewaldt, {R. A.} and Stone, {E. C.} and Waddington, {C. J.} and Wiedenbeck, {M. E.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by NASA Grant #NNX15AC23G, the Peggy and Steve Fossett Foundation and the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. We thank the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), the NASA Balloon Program Office, and the NSF United States Antarctic Program for the excellent and highly professional efforts that resulted in the record long-duration balloon flight for SuperTIGER and the successful recovery efforts for SuperTIGER and SuperTIGER-2. We also wish to thank Raven Aerostar, the manufacturer of the amazing balloon-craft we rely on for our science, as well as the Antarctic Support Contract (ASC) Team. Finally, we are particularly appreciative of the efforts of Scott Battaion (NASA/CSBF) and Kaija Webster (ASC) that made the recovery of SuperTIGER-2 and planned subsequent flight possible. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0); 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2019 ; Conference date: 24-07-2019 Through 01-08-2019",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
day = "2",
language = "English",
volume = "358",
journal = "Proceedings of Science",
issn = "1824-8039",
publisher = "Sissa Medialab Srl",
}