STABLE (Subarc sec Telescope And BaLloon Experiment) is a JPL early career personnel-led flight project to advance the technology of sub-arcsecond pointing stability for a high altitude balloon observatory mission. It could be a low cost, reusable alternative to space and ground-based observatories. STABLE will provide a pointing stability better than 0.1 arcsec in tip and tilt for at least 60 seconds exposures, while guiding off of relatively faint stars (magnitude 10). It will operate at nighttime, and provide high resolution, visible spectrum imaging from a balloon platform in the near space environment at an altitude of 105,000 feet and above greeter than 99 percent of the atmosphere. As such, STABLE will provide a basis for enabling science missions aimed at answering some of the most fundamental scientific questions.
This work is funded by the JPL Phaeton Program.
