The Remax mission is using a revolutionary technique that might just get them into the box seat for a serious crack at the allusive prize of circling the globe in a ballon - that some have described as the last great avaition adventure.

With its three pilots, Remax will carry a 6,000 pound gondola under 170,000 cubic feet of helium to 130,000 feet, in a ballon that expands to 460 feet across and 700 feet tall during the day.

Shooting across the world at between 80,000 feet at night and up to 130,000 feet (24miles - 39km) during the day, Remax will be in the stratosphere where no manned ballon has traveled before for extended periods.

For all the planning and precautions that have gone into the mission, the most pivotal moment may come when the envelope and gondola are still lying on the ground: the decision to launch.

The launch window was to have opened on Dec. 27, but high winds and rain have delayed the launch. The Team Remax crew hopes to launch at 5 a.m. Friday local time.

Hours earlier, pilots Dave Liniger, Bob Martin and John Wallington will be inside the gondola, in their pressure suits. They'll be kept cool by water running through the capsule's cooling system as they test all the electrical equipment, radios and the life-support systems. Then they'll close the hatch.

Outside, smaller test balloons will be sent up to assess wind conditions, as the huge Team Remax balloon is filled with 170,000 cubic feet of helium. That only takes about 45 minutes.

During inflation, the gondola will be suspended by a crane and boom until the balloon is nearly erect. Once the filling begins, turning back will come at a cost. The delicate envelope can be used only once, and there's only one spare.

Speaking earlier at the Jet Propulsion Lab where Remax was built, Dan Pedersen, Mission Control Director for Team Remax, said, "We're eager to see how the gondola holds up in radical temperature changes - from the extreme cold to extreme heat. That's what the co-pilots will experience on a daily basis, and that's what we're hoping to witness - before they get up there."

Building 150 at JPL is one of a handful of facilities in the United States capable of duplicating near-space environments. Built in the late 1950s, Building 150 at JPL is operated by the California Institute of Technology for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and became a National Historical Site in 1985. It has been upgraded several times.

Easily holding the 7-foot high, 8-feet-in diameter cylindrical gondola, the 25-foot Space Simulator rises out of one end of a three-story structure. The cylindrical chamber resembles a cross between a grain silo and a rocket launcher. A five-ton-capacity hoist lifts and guides space hardware through a giant 15- by 25-foot side-opening access door and into the 27 foot diameter stainless-steel chamber.

Closed, sealed and secure, every imaginable environment is then created in the giant tube by technicians, engineers and scientists operating from a glass-enclosed control room. Extreme cold (as low as minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit) is created by liquid or gaseous nitrogen. Solar heat (as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit) is simulated with an array of 37 xenon arc lamps and a collimating mirror.

Various test programs have been conducted at Building 150, including early planetary missions like Mariner 1, lunar programs Ranger and Surveyor and hardware used in missions to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Space exploration programs such as Galileo and Helios - a joint NASA-West German solar orbiting vehicle - were also tested here. Other projects have included tests on communication satellites Intelsat IV, V and the OLYMPUS satellite for the European Space Agency.

The crew will have until mid-January before the launch window closes for the season.

Dave Liniger is Chairman of Remax International, a global real estate franchise organization and primary sponsor for the mission; John Wallington is owner of Balloon Aloft in Canberra, Australia; and Bob Martin is a science reporter for KRQE, an Albuquerque, N.M. television station.

Remax Ballon Mission

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