Services
Zero pressure balloon design (global shape,
gore pattern, material selection, load tape configuration, taking
material properties into consideration)
Super pressure balloon design (global shape, gore pattern, material selection, tendon configuration, s-cleft and film creep evaluation, taking material properties into consideration)
Altitude control balloon system sizing
Flight performance of high-altitude balloons
(zero pressure, super pressure, super pressure blimps, tandem ZP/SP
configurations)
Flight dynamics of high-altitude balloons and balloon systems;
ascent, float,
descent, electric power energy balance
Balloon-launch dynamics and evaluation
Balloon shape analysis at variable conditions
Balloon thermal environments, film and gas
temperatures
Gas calculations for balloons (needed for a
given amount of freelift, and back-calculating actual gas quantity from
before/after readings of supply tanks)
Gas calculations for lift gas supply tanks
(from tank pressure and temperature and number of tanks and fill tubes;
final cut-off pressure and cooling deduction)
3-DOF modeling and trajectory of parachute
descent
Other Services
Sub-sonic aircraft performance, stability and control estimation
Preliminary design for propellers and optimal matching with DC electric motors
Education: instruction for the physics of high-altitude balloon flight and balloon design/anaylsis
Balloon Envelopes Sized/Designed by R. Farley, and Flown
Balloon Launch Dynamics
LDSD launch tower testing. Tower height and
acceptable wind range/direction determined by R. Farley.
Evaluation of best wind speed range and direction for spool release:
Ascent, Float, and
Descent Balloon Flight Dynamics
BalloonAscent is a flexible balloon flight dynamics simulation prediction tool. This software is a physics-based 3-D simulation of launch and float behavior for small or large high-altitude polyethylene balloons using atmosphere and winds data. It calculates the buoyant and drag forces, the radiant and convective heat loads. It determines flow through horse-tail ducts, and flow through the opening of apex valves. Simulations are carried out from any longitude and latitude, and at any time of the year. The earth IR environment is calculated by using an attenuation function reducing the ground source IR value based on the ground temperature and the given emissivity. The attenuation is calculated from the air mass separating the balloon and source. Ground temperatures are varied sinusoidally between a max day and min night value which combined with the given ground emissivity and the attenuation produces an instantaneous IR flux at the balloon altitude. Combined with this is the atmosphere's IR contribution.
The BalloonAscentFFA software was based on R.
Farley’s paper given at the AIAA 2005 Balloon and Aerodynamic
Decelerator Conference (Ref AIAA 2005-7412, BalloonAscent: 3-D
Simulation Tool for the Ascent and Float of High-Altitude Balloons).
Trajectory Analysis
Of balloon:
For an altitude control balloon station-keeping in June:
Of parachute:
Education
Balloon environments
1933 Jean Piccard 1933 flew to 61k ft
1935 Capt. Anderson flew to 72.4k ft
1944 Japanese discover the jet streams and launch “fire” balloons at U.S. west coast
1947 Otto Winzen makes polyethylene balloon with heat seals and load tapes
1947 Holloman AFB home of the military’s use of stratospheric balloons
1950’s Plastic stratospheric balloons used for spying over Soviet Union
1957-1960 MANHIGH/EXCELSIOR III mission, Joe Kittenger jumps from 102.8k ft
1960 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) became operational
1963 Permanent NCAR balloon base in Palestine Texas NSBF (National Scientific Balloon Facility)
1960’s small, light, Mylar super pressure spheres (GHOST) fly around the world
1970’s NASA started using the facility for heavy lift operations
1987 NASA managed the NSBF (later changed to CSBF)
1990 NASA heavy lift long duration circle Antarctica in polar vortex
2008 NASA 7mcf super pressure pumpkin had 54 day Antarctic flight
2012 Red Bull’s Stratos manned jump from 128.1k ft
2013 Google’s Loon Balloon (super pressure blimp), carries 10kg payload
2015 Paragon’s StratEx manned jump from 135.9k ft
2016 NASA
18.8 mcf super pressure pumpkin
circumnavigates the southern hemisphere
2016
World View Gryphon-01 demonstrates
altitude control
VAABBS (Variable Altitude Air Ballast Balloon System)
Mr. Farley has produced numerous trade studies
and preliminary design studies for projects like JWST, ISIS, CON-X, DUET, FKSI,
SPECS, Tirana, LISA, SPIRIT, Decadal Planning, VALOR (Venus balloon), TOAMS (Titan balloon). He has trouble-shot and reviewed for projects
like UARS, MAP, IMAGE, ICESAT, INFOCUS, GOES, SWIFT, STEREO, TWINS, GALEX,
QUICKTOMS, SDO, and GPM for problems ranging from light-pressure pin-wheeling, poorly
functioning non-explosive actuators, to wire-boom deployment dynamics for spacecraft
and sounding rockets. He has worked on
technology development with studies and hardware demos on large precision
deployable structures and booms, and x-ray grazing-incidence foil mirrors. Mr. Farley served as a branch consultant on
spacecraft rotary actuator mechanisms, DC and stepper motor sizing for
mechanisms, mechanical deployment and pyro actuated devices, and dynamics
analyses for non-linear, difficult to model problems.
For out-reach programs, Mr. Farley
taught the 2003 and 2005 mechanical design portion of a spacecraft systems
design class in the graduate department of aerospace engineering, University of
Maryland. He also taught a virtual seminar
for spacecraft deployable structures to NASA engineers from numerous NASA
centers. In 2016 he produced a 15
chapter balloon design class he presented to NASA Wallops Engineers. He has given his time for several High School
presentations on Aerospace Engineering and Celestial Navigation. Also he has led winning teams for the High School Engineering Challenges for
both the cargo ship and cargo airplane contests. Back in the 1990’s he also evaluated the
performance and structural modifications of a home-built aircraft (Quail) that
a High School shop teacher was using as a class project.
On loan to the NTSB in 2008 and
2012, he helped in the determination of accident causation for the Zodiac home
built aircraft which had wing-aileron flutter issues (2008), and the modified
P-51 Mustang Reno racer “Galloping Ghost” which crashed into the stands in 2012
when the elevator trim tab fluttered and broke off. Mr. Farley’s analyses of stick force and
aerodynamic flutter, as well as observations of the wreckage helped to pin
point the causes and cures for the problems.
With an educational background of
aerodynamics, aircraft design, flight dynamics and structural dynamics, he has
produced computer modeling codes for simulating the dynamic behavior of deployable
appendages, stepper motor rotary actuators, rotating beam vibrations,
motored-powered flexible mechanisms with PID controllers, 6 DOF rigid body
flight simulators, orbit simulations using multi-body special perturbation
methods, re-entry vehicle dynamic simulation, propeller design, helicopter
blade dynamics and loads, aircraft design, helicopter performance, balloon envelope
design and balloon flight dynamics simulation.
When working at World View
he invented the
Variable Altitude Air Ballast Balloon System (VAABBS) configuration and
flight simulated the expected performance to prove efficacy, in tanden
with Iain Beveridge who was finding the perfect compressor. He sized
and designed all of
the super
pressure pumpkin balloons and zero pressure lift balloons, including
the
largest lifting zero pressure balloon ever to fly to 50,000 ft (27,590
lbs
gross lift). Of course none of it would have been possible
without the help of a dedicated team who would push for the crazy ideas
and start the company
(thanks to Taber and Jane), and all of the talented engineers and manufacturing
people at World View
turning the dream into reality with all of the required detail
engineering and manufacturing processes necessary (Iain Beveridge, Ryan
Lee, Zane
Maccagnano, John Strauss,
Esteban Garcia, Sebastian Padilla, and many more). The
devil is in the details, and if it were not for the people commiting to
a startup company, and all those involved in ironing out a new design,
the dream would just stay as a cartoon and a calculation and never see
the light of day. It does indeed take a village. And vision. And money...
PUBLISHED BOOKS
“Celestial Navigation
in a Teacup”, 2010, LuLu publishing, ISBN-978-1-105-36437-2
“Balloon Design”, 2013, author of chapter 13 in AIAA
education series book “Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design Vol 2” ISBN
978-1-60086-898-6
PUBLISHED PAPERS
“Ribbon Cable Strap Free of Backlash, limited rotation joint
at cryogenic temperatures” 1990, Published in NASA Tech Briefs GSC-13371
"Spacecraft Deployable Appendages", 1992,
contributing author, GSFC/NASA published internal report
"Development of the Solar Array Deployment and Drive
System for the XTE Spacecraft", 29th Aerospace Mechanism
Symposium 1995, conference publication 3293
“Tethered Formation
Configurations: Meeting The Scientific
Objectives of Large Aperture and Interferometric Science”, 2001, AIAA published
paper 2001-4770, Space 2001 Symposium
"BalloonAscent: 3-D Simulation Tool for the Ascent and
Float of High-Altitude Balloons", AIAA conference paper 2005-7412
“Predicting the
Deployment Pressure in an Ascending Pumpkin Balloon”, AIAA 2011-6831
contributing author
“The Sample Analysis
at Mars Investigation and Instrument Suite”, 2012, contributing author, Space
Science Review
“Wide Range Vacuum
Pumps for the SAM Instrument on the MSL Curiosity Rover”, 2014, contributing
author, presented at the 2014 Aerospace Mechanism Symposium
“Qualification of the
NASA Super Pressure Balloon”, 2015, AIAA 2015-2909 contributing author
“Designing Super Pressure Pumpkin Balloons”, 2016, NASA/TM-2016-217549 Jan 2016 (never released due to formatting non-conformities, and then I retired and it has stayed in limbo)
AWARDS/HONORS since 2000
2001 Exceptional Service Medal, 2001 Group Achievement LENA Imager
development team
2002 Group Achievement Award to the Top-Hat project team
2003 Excellence in Outreach Group Award for University of Maryland Aero 691 class instructor
2013 Goddard Exceptional Engineering Award for Sample
Analysis on Mars design and integration team
2016 Goddard Honor Award Engineering Team Award for the
Super Pressure Balloon Development
2018 AIAA Regional and National Engineer of the Year Awards “For the system design of a controlled lighter than air vehicle which is capable of station keeping in the stratosphere.”
2021 AIAA Otto Winzen Lifetime Achievement Award