Weekly Reports from Student High Altitude Launch and Payload Teams

Week 1: June 3-9, 2007

The first day we all introduced ourselves and discussed our individual talents that may be useful in the development and success of the project.  After the introductions, we played a team building exercises in order to become more comfortable communicating with one another.  For the game we were given the task of coming up with 3 statements about ourselves, 2 truthful statements and 1 untruthful statement.  Once a teammate said their 3 statements the rest of us then discussed amongst ourselves as to which one was the untruthful statement. 

Dr. Farrow discussed some issues that other teams have had in the passed such as the lack of communication between their team and the launch team and the retrieval of the balloon.  When Dr Farrow discussed how passed teams chased the payload upon decent, there was a mutual feeling among the team in regards to how much fun such an experience must be.  It was interesting to know that the balloon was retrieved only 55% of the time.

During the first week we all began brain storming to come up with ideas about what questions we could answer regarding some aspect of atmospheric science.  It was very interesting to hear all of the ideas that each group member came up with, there was a total of 40 ideas.  Some ideas were good and some weren’t, however the objective was not to just discuss the feasible ideas, but it was to encourage ones imagination in order to come up with some ideas that we all may be enthusiastic about.  Through some discussion, we steadily began to eliminate the ideas that may not be feasible because of the limited amount of time available, our lack of knowledge in a certain field, or the lack of interested expressed by any group members.

One experiment that we all decided we could do which didn’t rely on the contents of the payload was a visibility test. This experiment would test the maximum distance at which people could see the balloon in the sky.  In order to execute this experiment a great deal of organization would be involved however it would easily fit within our budget.  Because the experiment would be so relatively cheap we could easily perform this experiment along with any other experiment that we would perform.

We each then chose 5 ideas that we liked the most and were given the task of researching them to determine whether or not the idea was truly feasible, what equipment would be involved and the cost of the equipment.  The next time we met we discussed our findings and once again decided as a team as to which ones we all showed the mot interest in and were at the same time feasible.  Some ideas such as creating an ion thruster were very interesting however it turned out to be unfeasible because of time constraints, the weight of the payload, and the technicality involved.  We ultimately settled on three ideas that we would focus on; measuring the UV light in the atmosphere, measuring the solar energy in the atmosphere, and creating a sun tracking system.

We separated into teams of 2 and each team researched one of the 3 ideas.  Kenion and I researched UV sensors, Chelsey and Caitlin researched solar photo voltaic cells, and Eric and John sun tracking systems.  Once we determined the needed equipment we began looking at possible designs for the payload and.  The key idea was that the design of the payload would revolve around the sun tracking system. Before week 1 ended we were given the task of coming up with ways to integrate our equipment into the payload and discussing it during week 2.

Ideas that were thought of through brain storming

1. +Mapping CO2 or O2 levels
2. niobium - pass current though and it changes color; see if affected by altitude
3. +Small balloon and piston to try to use the pressure differential between ground and altitude
4. +Measure magnetic field strength as balloon rises (tracking required)
5. +UV light intensity above and below the ozone level
6. IR imaging of ground (concerned about the WSGC Curse of the IR system)
7. +Measure power output of solar photo voltaic cells vs. altitude
8. =Rope strength for rope used to hold system together
9. -Measure if transistor switching rates are affected by flight
10. --Measure gravity field vs. altitude
11. How well does sound carry vs. altitude
12. -Fly plant to measure O2 production vs. altitude
13. -Test batteries performance
14. -High-Zoom camera to identify animals
15. -Measure ion concentration at altitude
16. Measure background X-ray, radio wave or microwave radiation vs. altitude
17. -Monitor liquid boiling points
18. -Does altitude affect film speed?
19. +Camera tracking system Sun tracking
20. +Measure temperature, pressure, altitude wind speed and look for correlation with LOS
21. -Microwave or IR emitter-receiver pairs looking for altitude effects
22. -Watch for pulsar energy or cosmic ray energy
23. -Measure stress on balloon vs. altitude
24. -Measure change in temperature different types of insulation in small amounts of water
25. -Affects of altitude on shape memory alloy metals
26. +Visibility test to see what kind of distraction the balloon system might create (more people involved)
27. -Ion thruster
28. +Fly random objects and see how they behave - marshmallows - tennis balls
29. -Bacteria (concerned with how to really control and analyze)
30. Digital topographic
31. Determine population density based on color of pixels
32. -Are timers affected by altitude?
33. -Stirling engine using temperature differential
34. -Measure alpha particles in air
35. -Measure spectrum in air vs. altitude to analyze during flight (space, weight, holding calibration)
36. -Measure weather "stuff" and predict
37. Fly a bug
38. -Measure C14 in air
39. +Strain gages on payload (accelerometers)
40. +Activated charcoal canisters that open and close at various altitudes

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