气球载甚长基线干涉测量实验（BVEX）射电望远镜与位置跟踪系统
The Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment (BVEX) Radio Telescope and Position Tracking System
另 10 家 · 查看机构详情
- Queen’s University（女王大学）
- Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森尼天体物理中心）
- Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University（哈佛大学黑洞倡议）
- Dalhousie University（达尔豪斯大学）
- Queen’s University, Smith School of Engineering（女王大学史密斯工程学院）
- Queen’s University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics（女王大学数学与统计系）
- MIT Haystack Observatory（麻省理工学院海斯塔克天文台）
- Trottier Space Institute, McGill University（麦吉尔大学特罗蒂尔太空研究所）
- McGill University（麦吉尔大学）
- McMaster University（麦克马斯特大学）
- StarSpec Technologies Inc.（StarSpec科技有限公司）
- Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）
- University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）
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中文总结 AI 辅助
本文提出气球载VLBI实验（BVEX），一种22 GHz气球射电望远镜及高精度位置跟踪系统，旨在以低成本演示气球平台VLBI，并给出测试结果与未来升级计划。
中文摘要 AI 辅助
甚长基线干涉测量（VLBI）是射电天文学中的一种技术，通过将相距数千公里的射电望远镜的同步观测进行相关处理，极大地提高了射电观测的衍射极限角分辨率。地面高频VLBI的基线长度受地球直径限制，灵敏度则受地球大气分子吸收的限制。改进VLBI的方法之一是使用气球望远镜，其成本远低于空间VLBI望远镜。此外，气球VLBI台站还可通过增加uv覆盖来提高图像质量。作为实现气球平台VLBI的第一步，我们介绍了气球载VLBI实验（BVEX）。这是一个新颖的第一代气球载VLBI台站，在K波段（22 GHz）进行观测，于2025年8月作为加拿大航天局（CSA）STRATOS活动的一部分从加拿大安大略省蒂明斯发射，旨在通过与大型地面望远镜进行相关处理来演示气球平台的VLBI能力。我们讨论了36英寸（91厘米）射电望远镜和接收机的设计，其带宽为2 GHz，采用商用现货（COTS）组件构建，以及能够与CSA的CARMENCITA吊舱接口的望远镜指向系统。我们还介绍了一种由COTS组件构建的新型高精度位置跟踪系统，在1秒时间尺度上提供小于1毫米的精度，这是实现22 GHz相位跟踪所必需的。我们进一步展示了2025年蒂明斯活动的地面测试结果。2025年从蒂明斯的飞行因气球泄漏而未成功，导致有效载荷无法达到可实现精确吊舱指向的目标高度。因此，我们最后提出了升级望远镜的计划，以应对2027年从巴西托坎廷斯州帕尔马斯的潜在下一次飞行机会。
英文摘要
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is a technique in radio astronomy that vastly increases the diffraction limited angular resolution of radio observations by correlating simultaneous observations of radio telescopes separated by thousands of kilometers. Ground-based high-frequency VLBI is limited in baseline length by the diameter of the Earth and in sensitivity by molecular absorption of the Earth's atmosphere. One of the ways to improve VLBI is with balloon telescopes, which are much cheaper than space VLBI telescopes. In addition balloon-VLBI stations could also improve image quality due to increased uv-coverage. As a first step to achieving VLBI from a balloon-borne platform we present the Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment (BVEX). This is a novel, first-generation balloon-borne VLBI station observing at K-band (22 GHz) which launched as part of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) STRATOS campaign from Timmins, Ontario, Canada in August 2025, with the aim to demonstrate VLBI from a balloon-borne platform by correlating with a large ground based telescope. We discuss the design of the 36 inch (91 cm) radio telescope and receiver with a 2 GHz bandwidth built from commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components as well as the telescope pointing system capable of interfacing with the CSA's CARMENCITA gondola. We also present a novel high precision position tracking system built from COTS components giving <1 mm precision on 1 s time scales which is required for achieving phase tracking at 22 GHz. We further show on-the-ground testing results from the 2025 Timmins campaign. The 2025 flight from Timmins was not successful due to a leak in the balloon preventing the payload from reaching its target altitude where accurate gondola pointing is possible. We therefore wrap up by presenting plans to upgrade the telescope for a potential next flight opportunity from Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil in 2027.
