Aerodynamic and Mission Performance of a Winged Balloon Guidance System

A winged balloon guidance system exploits the natural wind-field variation with the altitude available in planetary atmospheres to generate passive lateral control forces on a balloon using a tether-deployed aerodynamic surface below the balloon. Several balloon guidance system topics are discussed, including development status, physics and aerodynamics, systems performance, concept of operations, and the near-space applications of this technology for scientific, communications, and defense applications.