Conception and realisation of a wind sensor for application onboard a stratospheric balloon

The present paper aims at presenting the work performed by the author within the company CNES. The overall context of the internship is characterised by the design of a new category of stratospheric balloons that will ensure the ability to control the flight direction. The objective is to manoeuvre the aerostats thanks to altitude excursions so as to exploit favourable winds to reach the desired destination or maintain the position above a specific point of interest. It is therefore essential to know the wind profile in the balloons’ vicinity. The internship here described addresses this need by developing a prototype system capable of providing information about the wind direction and intensity, while maintaining reduced costs in economic terms and also from the point of view of the additional weight introduced. To do so, two different methods have been developed to calculate the wind profile, based on numerical strategies that take as inputs the readings from multiple sensors. The instrument system consists mainly of a GNSS module and an IMU, which have been integrated into the electronics assembly. To ensure the system’s operation, sophisticated programs to be executed by the electronics have been developed, as well as a transmission system to enable the communication with the ground. Moreover, the system’s thermal and mechanical design have been performed, together with the power supply sizing.