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

TL;DR

This paper details the thermal modeling, design, and in-flight performance analysis of BLASTPol, a balloon-borne telescope that measures polarized thermal emission from interstellar dust to study magnetic fields in molecular clouds.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive thermal model and in-flight performance data for BLASTPol, aiding future balloon-borne instrument design and stability.

Findings

Thermal model predictions closely matched in-flight temperature data.

Effective sun-shielding strategy maintained thermal stability.

Insights into thermal behavior of balloon-borne platforms for future designs.

Abstract

We present the thermal model of the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol). This instrument was successfully flown 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.