Dynamic Characterization of a High-Altitude Balloon During a Flight Campaign for the Detection of ISM Radio Background in the Stratosphere

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 here reported was motivated by the need to perform an experimental assessment of the RF background present in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) bands, namely 868 MHz (UHF) and 2.4 GHz (S-Band), simulating the operational environment of a LEO constellation for 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 behaviour 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 band considered are actually suitable for IoT ground-to-LEO links.