At a quiet airstrip near Tillamook, Oregon, 10 people in comfortable running shoes take their positions along an 82-foot tether secured to the front of an SUV. At the far end of the line, a giant helium balloon bobs like a translucent white jellyfish. As they stand holding the connected components of an instrument payload attached to the tether, some of the runners wait for a signal from Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Jack Jones, who's standing by the SUV, hand on the release mechanism, peering at the teardrop-shaped balloon. For this test, being conducted in December 2005, the payload is bound for the stratosphere. But Jones' interests range much farther. Inside one of the payload canisters is another, smaller balloon similar to the ones he'd someday like to fly over Mars.
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