NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., has designed a new pointing system — the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP) — that can point balloon-borne scientific instruments at targets with sub arc-second accuracy and stability. A planetary scientist now plans to test drive the device in Sept. 2014. WASP is designed to be a highly flexible, standardized system capable of supporting many science payloads. Its development frees scientists, who in the past had to develop their own pointing systems, to instead focus on instrument development.
Planetary targets move with respect to the stars in the background. And because you need to track them to gather measurements, you need a system that can accurately point and then follow a target. These challenges are why planetary scientists haven’t gotten into the balloon game. But that’s about to change. Credit: NASA