Altitude control performance of a natural energy driven stratospheric aerostat

• A novel natural energy driven stratospheric aerostat is described.
• A thermo-mechanical dynamic model of the novel aerostat is proposed.
• The altitude control performance of the novel aerostat is analyzed.

The superheating induced overpressure is one of the key obstacles for long-endurance station-keeping of stratospheric aerostats. A novel stratospheric aerostat by utilizing the natural energy is presented and discussed in this paper. A thermo-mechanical dynamic model is established to analyze the altitude control performance of this novel aerostat. The simulation results show that the novel stratospheric aerostat can ascend to a high altitude about 25.8 km due to the combined heating effects of the solar radiation, the Earth albedo and the infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface and keeps at an altitude about 22 km by the infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface. In addition, the aerostat can be controlled within the desired altitude range by the simple open/close valve control strategy.