As a kind of large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle, a high-altitude balloon can carry a large load up to tens of kilometers in the near space for a long time, which brings a new way for the stratosphere atmospheric detection. In order to provide a suitable working environment for the near-space detection load, it is necessary to design a sensor system based on a high-altitude balloon, which is used to provide environmental temperature, height position, and attitude information, current working, and video surveillance. The high-altitude balloon-based sensor system designed in this paper had participated in the near-space flight experiment, whose total flight time was 30 h and 53 min, and the horizontal flight time was 28 h and 58 min crossing the day and night. The high-altitude balloon-based sensor system had withstood the severe environment of the near-space during the day and night, providing accurate temperature measurement, real-time altitude position and attitude data acquisition, reliable current monitoring, and comprehensive video surveillance. In the next three years, the high-altitude balloon-based sensor system developed in this paper will continue to participate in the experiment and provide support for more detection loads.

The near-space atmosphere is thin, and the atmospheric refraction and scattering on optical observation is very small, making it very suitable for wide-area and high-resolution surveillance using high-altitude balloon platforms. This paper adopts a 9344 × 7000 CMOS sensor to obtain high-resolution images, generating large-field-of-view imaging through the swing scanning of the photoelectric sphere and image stitching. In addition, a zoom lens is designed to achieve flexible applications for different scenarios, such as large-field-of-view and high-resolution imaging. The optical design results show that the camera system has good imaging quality within the focal length range of 320 mm–106.7 mm, and the relative distortion values at different focal lengths are less than 2%. The flight results indicate that the system can achieve seamless image stitching at a resolution of 0.2 m@20 km and the imaging field of view angle exceeds 33°. This system will perform other near-space flight experiments to verify its ultra-wide (field of view exceeding 100°) high-resolution imaging application.

Near space, as a critical atmospheric domain with unique physical, electromagnetic, and biological characteristics, remains a frontier with extensive unresolved scientific questions in atmospheric physics, electromagnetic environment dynamics, and biological adaptability mechanisms. In response to these knowledge gaps, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) initiated a strategic pilot science and technology project dedicated to systematically investigating the aforementioned three core domains of near space. This project has allowed for a series of near-space scientific experiments to be successfully conducted on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, utilizing large zero-pressure high-altitude balloons to carry diverse scientific payloads. From an engineering perspective, all experiments achieved complete success: high-altitude balloons with volumes ranging from 2000 m³ to 50,000 m³ safely transported scientific exploration equipment and payload cabins (with payload masses of 100 kg to 400 kg) to the near space; all scientific instruments maintained stable operational status throughout the missions; payload cabins reliably provided essential support functions, including power supply, data storage, real-time data transmission, and video monitoring for the scientific payloads; and both the scientific equipment and payload cabins were successfully recovered. These efforts are expected to enhance the scientific understanding of Earth’s near space environment and provide a technical foundation for subsequent large-scale near space exploration initiatives.

In order to improve the control of a moving mirror control system and enhance the anti-interference ability of the system, active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) with parameter autotuning is proposed and applied to control a rotary voice coil motor (RVCM). Improved snake optimization (I-SO) was applied to tune and optimize ADRC’s key parameters. To obtain excellent parameters efficiently, in the population initialization phase of SO, the quality and diversity of initial solutions were improved through a chaotic elite opposition learning algorithm. In the local search phase, a sine and cosine (SC) search mode was introduced to enhance the local search ability of SO. The simulation results show that I-SO can effectively find the ideal parameters. I-SO has excellent search capability and stability. The experimental control system of a moving mirror was established, and the effectiveness of the parameters optimized by I-SO was verified. ADRC with parameter autotuning showed excellent control in the moving mirror control system, and the stability of the optical path scanning speed reached 99.2%.

Offshore drilling platforms leak hundreds of thousands of tons of oil every year causing immeasurable damage to the marine environment, therefore it is important to be able to monitor for oil leakage. A hyperspectral camera, as an advanced device integrating spectral technology and imaging technology, can keenly capture the differences in spectral reflectance of different types of oil and seawater. This study presents the design of a hyperspectral camera covering the 400 nm–900 nm spectral band (90 bands total) and establishes a monitoring system comprising a high-precision inertial navigation system, a stabilization system, and a data acquisition system. Furthermore, this study conducted a field flight experiment using a Cessna aircraft, acquiring hyperspectral data with a one m spatial resolution of a drilling platform around the South China sea at 3000 m altitude, which effectively delineated the spectral characteristics of the oil spill area. The detection system developed in this study provides a robust means for oil spill monitoring on drilling platforms in remote sensing of the marine environment.

Near-space high-altitude balloon-based platforms have a series of advantages and provide superior conditions for optical observation. In order to ensure the stability of the optical axis of the optical detection load and stable tracking of the target, a near-space high-altitude balloon-based high-precision pointing and tracking system was designed, which can compensate for changes in the pitch angle and azimuth angle of the platform during flight. The system includes a primary platform stable pointing system and a secondary precise tracking system. In the finished flight experiment, the primary platform pointing system and secondary precise tracking system on the balloon-based observation platform worked normally, providing a guarantee for the coronagraph’s stable tracking and detection of the sun. The primary platform pointing system can realize ±1° pointing accuracy, and the simulated accuracy of the secondary precise tracking system is 4″, which guaranteed that the coronagraph obtained more than 20,000 images. In subsequent works, we will upgrade and optimize the whole system and conduct our next flight experiment in the future.