Sounding balloons, available at very low cost from commercial vendors and operable with minimal training, have an excellent potential as testing platforms in the near-space environment. The work reported here was motivated by the need to perform an experimental assessment of the radio frequency (RF) background present in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) bands, namely 868 MHz (Ultra High Frequency—UHF) and 2.4 GHz (S-Band), simulating the operational environment of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation forInternet of Things (IoT) telecommunications. To this end, five balloons were flown with a dedicated RF payload. Along with the radio measurements, the flights provided a convenient opportunity to collect data on the dynamic behavior of the payload gondola. We report on the system design and the operational phase of the mission, and discuss the data collected throughout the successful flight campaign. As a result, a preliminary understanding of the gondola dynamics has been gained, including both linear accelerations and attitude oscillations. It is also concluded that the two ISM bands considered are actually suitable for IoT ground-to-LEO links.

Sounding balloons have proven to be a very effective low-cost method to bring scientific and commercial payloads to the near-space environment. In the frame of our ongoing effort towards the development of a small stratospheric platform with autonomous flying capabilities, we have undertaken the design and manufacture of a flight experiment to verify the possibility to perform onboard attitude determination using the solar cell power output measurements to complement the inertial sensor. The system is based on six low-cost terrestrial solar cells placed on the sides of a boxshaped gondola, lifted to about 34 km altitude by a weather balloon. We describe the system architecture, the results of the first experimental flight and the post-landing attitude reconstruction.

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In 2021, the Space Systems Laboratory of the University of Pisa (UniPi) started a student-oriented high-altitude ballooning programme intended to provide an opportunity for hands-on experience in support of the teaching of scientific and technical courses. The programme provides mentoring on scientific, technical and management issues, along with financial support and assistance with integration and launch on a sounding balloon platform. The goal is to conduct flying experiments in the stratosphere, retrieve them after landing and process the results; by doing so, the students experience all phases of a scientific mission project, from conceptual design to realisation, operations and post-flight analysis. Following a call for proposal open to all students of the UniPi across all study areas, three experiments were selected featuring multidisciplinary teams. This paper summarises the features of the programme’s first edition and presents the main lessons learned.

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