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When X-Calibur, as the polarimeter is called, looks to the skies, it will see things that have never been seen before because it is looking at characteristics of high-energy light that astronomers are just beginning to explore.
X-Calibur differs from other instruments in that it can measure the polarization degree and direction of X-rays, which provide information not available in other ways. For example, when it looks at black holes and their plasma outflows, it will be able to tell how fast the black holes are spinning.
"Whenever you look at the sky at a different wavelength, you see something completely different," said Henric Krawczynski, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and principal investigator of the X-Calibur experiment.
The beauty of balloon flights is that they can be used to test new instruments like X-Calibur at very low cost, but the drama of them is that the experiment flies at the mercy of the wind.
X-Calibur, like other experiments flown from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, has to catch a ride on what is called a stratospheric turnaround event.
At mid-latitudes, stratospheric winds reverse direction twice each year: in the early spring and in late summer. If the winds are favorable, the balloon will travel west in the morning and return east in the evening.
"This way you can put it in the air for 30 hours, if you're lucky," Krawczynski said. If the wind doesn't turn around, the balloon flight will be short. When balloons drift outside the allowed operational area, flight safety officers fire guillotines that separate the parachute from the balloon, dropping the payload.
What could possibly go wrong? The WUSTL polarimeter will be carried aloft by an X-ray pointing telescope, called InFOCuS, that was designed and built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
A team of 15 people is working 12-hour days -- essentially living in the NASA hangar at Fort Sumner -- to make sure the telescope will be ready on time to catch the favorable winds.