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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Development Of An Integrated Online Balloon Flight System, Ethan E. Harstad
Development Of An Integrated Online Balloon Flight System, Ethan E. Harstad
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
Aerodyne Labs has been working with the Stratospheric Ballooning Association to develop an all inclusive high altitude ballooning software suite. This software suite is intended to allow every step of conducting a balloon flight to be conducted on a single website. Flight predictions can be performed many days in advance and used to automatically generate notices for both the FAA and public. Once the balloon has been launched, telemetry can be streamed to the website to allow real-time position and telemetry updates, including a dedicated view for FAA controllers. Data that is not streamed from the payload can be uploaded …
Integrating K12 Outreach With Undergraduate & Graduate Student Research Through Balloonsat: High Altitude Balloons, J Tillman Kennon, Bryant Fong
Integrating K12 Outreach With Undergraduate & Graduate Student Research Through Balloonsat: High Altitude Balloons, J Tillman Kennon, Bryant Fong
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
The Arkansas BalloonSAT team has successfully launched and recovered 37 BalloonSAT’s dating back to the first flight on December 16, 2006. Numerous instruments measuring such things as atmospheric temperature, humidity, radiation, and light intensity have recorded data from different locations over the State of Arkansas. The initial focus of this project was outreach with the k-12 schools, and still involves outreach; however atmospheric research has become a significant component for this endeavor. This ongoing collaborative projection has involved a number of faculty and students from different academic backgrounds, including physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy among different ASGC schools who have …
Techniques For Payload Stabilization For Improved Photography During Stratospheric Balloon Flights, James Flaten, Christopher Gosch, Joseph (Benjamin) Habeck
Techniques For Payload Stabilization For Improved Photography During Stratospheric Balloon Flights, James Flaten, Christopher Gosch, Joseph (Benjamin) Habeck
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
Payload-box rotation and swing are perennial challenges to achieving high-quality photography (typically videography) during weather-balloon flights to “near-space” (AKA the stratosphere). Continuous camera motion can lead to blurred still photos, nearly-impossible-to-watch video footage, and precludes time-exposure photography required for most astronomical imaging even though altitudes are reached where the daytime sky appears black. Apparently-random payload rotation, persisting even at altitude, can often exceed servo rotation rates and frustrate attempts to do active camera pointing. Here we discuss mostly-passive payload stabilization strategies we, and our collaborators, have used to mitigate and dampen both swing and rotation of suspended payloads on high-altitude …
The “Stratospheric Cricket Keeper” – Developing A Simple“Life-Support” Payload For High-Altitude Balloon Missions, Lucas Kramer, Chad Serba, James Flaten
The “Stratospheric Cricket Keeper” – Developing A Simple“Life-Support” Payload For High-Altitude Balloon Missions, Lucas Kramer, Chad Serba, James Flaten
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
Exposure to the environmental conditions of “near-space” (AKA the stratosphere) is quickly fatal to nearly all forms of animal life. It is even challenging to build a sealable enclosure that can keep insects (crickets) alive through the dramatic and simultaneous pressure and temperature drops experienced during a high-altitude balloon mission. This poster describes the development of a rugged “cricket keeper” in which we were able to fly crickets to the stratosphere and, quoting the words of JFK, “return (them) safely to the earth!” This “life-support” payload had large windows (for the view!) and included Arduino-logged temperature and pressure sensors, an …
Long Term Tropospheric And Stratospheric Measurements Using High Altitude Balloons, Bryant Fong, J Tillman Kennon, Ed Roberts, Hashim Ali
Long Term Tropospheric And Stratospheric Measurements Using High Altitude Balloons, Bryant Fong, J Tillman Kennon, Ed Roberts, Hashim Ali
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
The Arkansas BalloonSAT program is an educational outreach and research program at Arkansas State University. A variety of instruments including HOBO data loggers, Anasonde, and Arduino methane sensors have been flown on flights in the past five years. Measurements using BalloonSAT provides a cost effective option, while also matching measurements made with satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. This includes identifying water vapor, pressure, background radiation, methane, carbon dioxide and temperature profiles over seasons and years. Water vapor trends were observed to vary with seasons, with water vapor lowest in the summer and greatest in the spring at stratospheric altitudes. Methane …
Learning To Fly: Initial Experiments In High Altitude Ballooning, Tracy L. Knowles, Dalton Warren, Sara Stewart, Angel Smith, Joe Maciag
Learning To Fly: Initial Experiments In High Altitude Ballooning, Tracy L. Knowles, Dalton Warren, Sara Stewart, Angel Smith, Joe Maciag
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
The Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s (BCTC) Balloon Sat Project trained students and faculty to design, build, and fly balloon-borne atmospheric data collection payloads. Students and faculty attended NASA’s Balloon Sat four day workshop/Flight at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. During the Spring 2015 semester, the student team launched two balloons with sensors on board that measured atmospheric temperature, pressure, altitude, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentrations.
Using A High Altitude Balloon Platform To Observe And Measure Seasonal Ozone Flux Over Agricultural Landscapes, Cody Sabo
2017 Academic High Altitude Conference
The concentration of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in the atmosphere has continued to rise since the industrial era. This issue has had a multitude of negative impacts on all living things. Among the major GHGs are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Ozone is of particular importance because it not only has the ability to trap heat in the atmosphere, but it also directly impacts organisms by causing harm to both plants and humans. The damage that ozone causes to plants is most closely linked to ozone uptake rather than ozone concentration. So, measuring ozone uptake is becoming critical for …