Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
Hyderabad : B. Suneel Kumar, Scientist–in–charge, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Government of India has informed that 10-balloon flights were launched from Hyderabad for scientific purpose from August 1 to 30 under the auspices of the Department of Atomic Energy and ISRO.
The balloons filled with Hydrogen gas, carrying Scientific instruments will be launched from Balloon facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, ECIL here. The balloons are made of twin (Polyethylene) plastic films, ranging in diameters from 50 mtrs to 85 mtrs and normally launched between 20 hrs and 6.30 hrs at night.
The balloons, which carry up scientific instruments for research at high altitudes, are expected to reach heights between 17 km and 30 km depending upon the experiments being undertaken. The instruments will be kept at these heights for periods ranging from a few to 10 hours and then they will be released from the balloon. After release, the instruments will come down to ground on large coloured parachutes. During ascent and at ceiling, the balloons will drift in the prevailing winds and the instruments, may, therefore, land at points as distant as about 200 to 350 km from Hyderabad. The balloon drifts will be on the Vishakapatnam-hyderabad-Sholapur line, in the areas of AP, North Karnataka and Maharashtra States.
The expected regions of impact of the payload after release from the balloon are: Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahaboobnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts of Telangana. The parachute with the instruments suspended underneath it, on a long rope, around 20 meters in length, will usually come down to ground quite slowly.
Suneel Kumar appealed the People that the persons who find the parachute and instruments are requested not to remove them from its place of landing and to telephone or sent a telegram to the address which will be given on various packages. They are also requested to contact the nearest Police Station, Post Office and District Authorities about the finding. Instruments are kept inside wooden cages or large aluminum framework / containers for safety.
The instruments are extremely sensitive and valuable, scientific data will be lost if they are tampered . There may be high voltages on some of the instruments, which will be dangerous, but only if the instruments are opened up. Otherwise they are safe and harmless. On receipt of information from finders, scientists carrying out these experiments will collect the instruments and pay the finder a suitable reward plus all of their reasonable expenses for sending telegrams, making telephone calls, travelling for conveying the information, etc. No reward will be paid if it is found that anything has been opened or tampered with.
