The JPL PAUSE Aerobot

Abstract

The PAUSE (Picosat and Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Systems Engineering) project, currently under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and the University of California at Los Angeles, is a high-altitude balloon-based aerobot which carries a gondola outfitted with various instruments. An aerobot is a robot designed to fly in the atmosphere of planets and moons, providing extensive regional access while gathering high resolution data. Aerobots have a multitude of applications such as mapping a terrestrial surface, ground surveillance, and in-situ atmospheric composition surveying. The latest version of PAUSE was deployed from Oregon where it successfully relayed live GPS, temperature, altitude, velocity, battery status, images, and magnetometer data to multiple ground stations. The goals of PAUSE are to demonstrate that existing technologies can be used for Aero-Robotic exploration and to develop new technology where existing options prove unsatisfactory.