Some technical solutions in stratospheric platform design devoted to protecting power sources from damage of landing

Researchers in astrophysics and earth observation are still interested in balloon campaigns for making measurements outside the atmosphere. It is possible to trim a bit more from the ballooning costs by increasing the number of parts that can be reused, and by the careful design, the integration and the consolidation of a standard gondola apparatus (something like the mass production of cars). This paper will focus on one of the aspects capable of reducing costs, namely reusable power sources such as solar panels (SP) and fuel cells (FC) and how to protect them during the most difficult phases of the flight (take-off, landing). We will describe two possible ways of deploying and stowing a SP, and report the results of a thermal simulation aimed at ascertaining whether FC may be used in a stratospheric balloon environment.