Solar System exploration and SORA

Long Duration Balloons are usually considered a reasonably cheap and easy ac- cess to space. In this paper the interest of the Italian Space Agency, and in particular of the Observation of the Universe (OSU) unit, for the applications of LDB in Solar System ex- plorations is highlighted. The direct use in planetary atmosphere of aerial robots (aerobots) is described and their use for surface and subsurface observation together with light landers and / or rovers release on extended areas. Furthermore, the recent studies for Mars, Venus and Titan planetary balloons are briefly described and the proposed TANDEM mission to Titan is emphasized. A secondary application field is the comparative planetology, and ex- periments in this area are currently included in Italian programs; after the successful HASI campaign, in the near future the SORA experiment will be performed and it could pave the way to an intensive balloons use for the flight of scientific space payloads