The CLAIRE gondola: Testing the first gamma-ray lens on a stratospheric balloon

Abstract

For more than 40 years CNES has flown scientific balloon flights to perform measurements in a near space environment. The CNES balloon team provides the scientific teams with expertise in the construction of the gondola, the link between the instrument and the balloon. This gondola provides to the scientific instrument power supply, thermal and landing protection, attitude measurement and also pointing capability where needed. The project CLAIRE provides a good illustration of the CNES expertise in this domain. The goal of this project was to demonstrate that it is possible to focus a gamma-ray beam intercepted by a large area onto a small focal point. The concept has been demonstrated on ground in the 90s, but a validation under space conditions was necessary to measure the performance of such a telescope for a source at infinity. © 2006 Springer.