Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Physics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Engineering Physics

University Of Minnesota Smallsat And High Altitude Ballooning Development And Collaboration, Luke Zumwalt, Ricardo Saborio, Athanasios Pantazides, Aaron Nightingale, Demoz Gebre Egziabher, Lindsay Glesener Oct 2017

University Of Minnesota Smallsat And High Altitude Ballooning Development And Collaboration, Luke Zumwalt, Ricardo Saborio, Athanasios Pantazides, Aaron Nightingale, Demoz Gebre Egziabher, Lindsay Glesener

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The Experiment for X-ray Characterization and Timing (EXACT) mission is a 3U CubeSat technology-development project being built by the SmallSat team at the University of MN – Twin Cities which is a joint research effort of the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) Department and the School of Physics and Astronomy (SPA). The main objective of this spacecraft is to carry a payload including a detector designed to measure energy and time of arrival time of individual hard x-ray photons emitted from the Sun and from other astrophysical sources. During the development process for EXACT, flights provided by the High-Altitude Student …


Measurement Of Speed Of Sound Profile Using Laaces Balloon, Zhuang Li, Brett Schaefer, Brian Schaefer, William Dever, Tyler Morgan, Matthew Foltz Oct 2017

Measurement Of Speed Of Sound Profile Using Laaces Balloon, Zhuang Li, Brett Schaefer, Brian Schaefer, William Dever, Tyler Morgan, Matthew Foltz

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The goal of this mission is to test the speed of sound at different altitudes and ultimately at a maximum height of 100,000 feet (30 km). In conjunction with this testing, environmental parameters including temperature, pressure, and humidity are measured and used to calculate the speed of sound to compare to the measured results. The team constructed the payload “Dorothy” using polystyrene foam due to its lightweight and thermal isolation property. An ultrasonic sensor with a reflection mirror were installed outside payload box to measure speed of sound. All the sensors were calibrated. Software for the project was developed in …


Calibration Of Temperature Sensors In Preparation For The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse, Erick Agrimson, Kaye Smith, Ana Taylor, Vina Onyango-Robshaw, Rachel Lang, Alynie Xiong, Peace Sinyigaya, Grace Maki, Rachel Dubose, Brittany Craig, James Flaten, Gordon Mcintosh Oct 2017

Calibration Of Temperature Sensors In Preparation For The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse, Erick Agrimson, Kaye Smith, Ana Taylor, Vina Onyango-Robshaw, Rachel Lang, Alynie Xiong, Peace Sinyigaya, Grace Maki, Rachel Dubose, Brittany Craig, James Flaten, Gordon Mcintosh

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

In preparation for the 2017 total solar eclipse, St. Catherine University developed a calibration protocol for the temperature sensors flown during thermal wake boom experiments. The calibration method used a standard two-point technique that corrected each individual sensor for both slope and offset errors using a high quality NIST certified thermocouple as the temperature standard. Our method is not absolute but corrects each sensor relative to the NIST standard so that we feel some confidence that individual sensor variations are mitigated. In preparation for the eclipse, calibration curves were generated for over 200 individual digital and thermistor temperature sensors.


Pressure Regulator For A High Altitude Balloon, Kala Brown, Darci Snowden, Joe Cuthbertson, Jessica Kisner, Addison Wenger Oct 2017

Pressure Regulator For A High Altitude Balloon, Kala Brown, Darci Snowden, Joe Cuthbertson, Jessica Kisner, Addison Wenger

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

High altitude balloons are large latex balloons filled with gas that carry a payload to near space. Because they can travel to around 100,000 feet, they provide a convenient way to study the Earth’s atmosphere. Per Boyle’s Law, the pressure and volume of a confined gas are inversely proportional. Thus, as the balloon ascends and the atmospheric pressure decreases, the gas inside the balloon expands. This pressure difference allows the balloon to ascend, but it also causes it to continuously expand until it bursts. For some observations, one might want their balloon to remain at about the same altitude for …


Controlled Heading Automation Device, Robert Coulson Oct 2017

Controlled Heading Automation Device, Robert Coulson

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

One of the most significant limitations of weather balloon-based data collection is that instruments and payloads cannot depend on particular orientations or predictable rotation. Several investigators have used payload heading control devices to overcome this limitation in order to collect directional data and record motion controlled video footage. The work described in this presentation builds on the Controlled Heading Automation Device (CHAD) developed by Kruger et al. (2016) and was carried out at DePaul University in summer 2017 as an undergraduate research project. Our goal was to record stable video of the shadow of the moon on Earth’s surface during …


Preliminary Results From A Ground Based Magnetometer Rotation Table, Rachel Newman, April Gross, Jolene Johnson, Kaye Smith, Erick Agrimson, James Flaten Aug 2016

Preliminary Results From A Ground Based Magnetometer Rotation Table, Rachel Newman, April Gross, Jolene Johnson, Kaye Smith, Erick Agrimson, James Flaten

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

Understanding high altitude balloon rotation is important for many types of scientific measurements, therefore, balloon and payload rotation is a continuing area of interest and research. In this work, we present results obtained from an Arduino logged magnetometer rotated on a ground based rotation table. This table allowed us to precisely rotate and locate the Arduino logged magnetometer. We compare the Arduino logged results with “known magnetic field orientation” using an AIM rocketry altimeter. This comparison allowed us to test the accuracy of our Arduino logged results and the sampling capabilities of our magnetometer system using different rotational speeds.


Abstracts From The 2016 Ahac Conference, Erick Agrimson Aug 2016

Abstracts From The 2016 Ahac Conference, Erick Agrimson

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

This is a listing of Abstracts from AHAC 2016


Nasa Nebraska High Altitude Ballooning And The Fab Lab, Kendra Sibbernsen, Michael Sibbernsen Jun 2015

Nasa Nebraska High Altitude Ballooning And The Fab Lab, Kendra Sibbernsen, Michael Sibbernsen

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The NASA Nebraska High Altitude Ballooning (N-NHAB) program has collaborated on projects with the Fab Lab at Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, NE. Based on the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, the Fab Lab contains 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC machines, and much more. In its trial phase, the Fab Lab encouraged projects from the sciences. In response to this request, one of these projects involved a HAB student who wanted to streamline custom circuitry for measuring the efficiency of solar cells. The circuit pathways were designed and precisely cut from a copper sheet and the laser cutter …