The balloon launches from the Stratobowl had barriers to overcome. Each launch brought new challenges and successes. When the aeronauts overcame the barriers, there were great rewards.
The aeronauts had to overcome the barriers of deficient flight experience, the need to find a location to launch, the Stratosphere, weather, and lack of proper equipment. Finding a location was difficult because the aeronauts needed a location to fly the balloon. Once they found a location where they wanted to launch the balloon, they had to ask for permission to use the area because it was private land. The deficient flight experience in high altitude flying was a challenge for them. Soldiers from the Fourth Cavalry at Fort Meade in Sturgis, South Dakota had no balloon experience, so they launched a 35,000 cubic foot test balloon. Weather was a barrier because a clear, wind free day was needed to fly. The lack of equipment was a barrier because the aeronauts didn't have proper safety equipment. For example, the aeronauts didn't have head protection so they borrowed football helmets from the Rapid City football team. The aeronauts broke the barrier of the Stratosphere when they soared through it, laying the foundation of space exploration. The flights also advanced the use of magnesium allegories, pressurization techniques, and personal equipment such as the heated flying suit.
Image Courtesy of The Southe Dakota Air and Space Museum
This is one of the football helmets used in the flight of Explorer II.
Image Courtesy of National Geographic, October, 1934
This is an image of cosmic rays. The space between each line represents five minutes. The upper section was made at ground level, the middle section at about 40,000 feet above sea level, and the bottom section at about 60,000 feet above sea level.
Every flight made important contributions to space exploration, but some of the greatest rewards derived from the Explorer II flight. "A number of new facts have been added by the flight to our store of knowledge. Cosmic rays increase in number from sea level to an altitude of 57,000 feet then decrease in number as the measuring instrument rises. The first records were obtained of "bursts of energy" from atom disruption by cosmic rays up to 72,395 feet. The flight resulted in obtaining the first track ever made directly in the emulsion of a photographic plate by a cosmic ray of the alpha-particle type having the enormous energy of 100,000,000 electron volts. The first values were obtained by means of laboratory-size spectrographs, of sun spectra and sky spectra up to 72,395 feet. A photograph made from the stratosphere was the first to show the curved top of the troposphere and it showed the curvature of the earth. The first values were obtained for electrical conductivity of the air between 20,000 feet and 72,395 feet above sea level. The first large samples of air were secured from an altitude above 70,000 feet. The first knowledge was obtained that living spores float in the atmosphere above 36,000 feet. The first demonstration was made that spores will withstand physical conditions in the stratosphere up to 72,295 feet for at least four hours. The first natural color photographs were taken of the sky at high altitudes in the stratosphere. The first records were obtained showing brightness of the sky at 72,395 feet (one tenth that when viewed from the earth). Vertical photographs of the earth were made from a higher altitude than ever before (72,395 feet above sea level). The first radio signals were sent to earth stations from a station as high as 13.71 miles above the earth." These scientific discoveries and advances broke the barriers of space, one balloon at a time. National Geographic, May 1936
Image Courtesy of National Geographic, May 1936
Analyzing air from the Stratospere.
Image Courtesy of National Geographic, May 1936
The highest photograph made by man at the time.
Image Courtesy of National Geographic, May 1936
Creating a spore trap that would collect spores far above the clouds.