Balloon Launch

  At our Valley View Junior High School, science teacher Jill Weaver offers more to her students than dry text from a book. She offers hands-on projects. And what kid of that age group wouldn't love launching a technology-laden balloon into the stratosphere?

 Yesterday (04/26/21) was launch day and Tom and I parked at his house on Center Street and walked to the practice field behind VVJH. It's no more than a quarter mile away. This is the second year she's had a balloon launch.

 So at 10:30 AM we were on  the field and watched as the balloon and payload were readied for the flight.

 Perfect weather. Gentle wind from the northwest. Temperature near 70°.

I don't know the technicalities of what was placed in the instrument package [see the end of this blog] but I know the device communicated via amateur radio (W8WGR) and reported its position (GPS) and altitude (altimeter or perhaps the GPS). There were several cameras on board, too, but I assume they recorded locally. One had a 360° view so they could create a VR view of the stratosphere.

 As the helium flowed into the balloon, various students helped hold it down and also held up a tarp to prevent the wind from moving it around.

 This is the windbreak that was being held aloft for a short while.

 It's about ready to go ...

 Here's a close-up of the instrument package. The electronics were placed in a green plastic box and I believe they taped it shut before it flew.

 And now it's ready to go.

 Here's my video of the final seconds of the countdown and liftoff. VVJH's video can be found here.

 And soon it's just a white dot far overhead. As Tom and I walked back to his house I glanced up a few times and could see it for a short while. The payload reflected sunlight now and then and gave off a flash. I understand why people think they see UFO's; I suppose many are weather balloons.

 Here's the path the balloon took:

 Late in the day it was reported that the balloon had crossed into West Virginia but recently Jill reported it to be somewhere in southeast Ohio. For the last three hours there were no reports from the balloon so it may be lost, somewhere in a treetop. The chase team started back at 3 AM without the balloon.

 She's hoping someone finds it. The value of the contents is around $1500. It's known that the balloon achieved an altitude of 13.2 miles,

 Jill posted a map of the final reported position:

 This looks like a wooded area without many roads. It's going to be a challenge finding it. Maybe someone who lives in the area will stumble across it?

 More information as it comes in ...

[Follow-up: The balloon was found by a forestry worker "near Athens". It was returned the following day. A video was released that showed the launch and much of the travel but did not include the eventual balloon burst. Here's a frame taken from that video [Credit: Jill Weaver, VVJH]:

All of the following photos are courtesy of Jill Weaver.

"There is nothing like knowing you have successfully launched a weather balloon carrying experiments that you designed. For my students this was the most exciting part," Weaver said. Students self-selected their experiments and worked on teams to set up every part of the process from selection to testing to payload design."

 What did they include? Orbeez [a toy], fortune telling fish [ditto], thermoplastic beads, UV beads, seeds and soil samples.

 This was their second launch. The first in the Fall of 2020 reached an altitude of 15.2 miles. "[It] gave students data to make comparisons," Weaver said.

 The project was part of a Martha Holden Jennings/Dayton Regional STEM Center Aspire Grant. "We sought out and made connections with an amazing team of college engineering students from Wright State University," Weaver added. They worked with students throughout the entire process and also served as the chase team once the balloon was launched.

 "Launching and recovering payloads and equipment is very risky," she said, "with a high probability of loss and students understood we were taking a risk to do this exploration into the atmosphere of our planet."

 

Scientific instruments onboard included a flight computer, an APRS tracking device [Automatic Packet Reporting System, an amateur radio device transmitting on 144.390 MHz], a back-up SPOT tracker, GoPro cameras, a 360° camera and temperature and humidity sensors.

 Students kept an engineering logbook.

 

 Weaver said a Bayer Grant that supports rural schools will allow for another launch later this month (May 2021). It'll be a 1200g balloon. "That's twice as big as what we have launched so far. We plan to launch multiple payload packages," she said.

They're also planning ahead for Pico launch that might "circumnavigate the globe".

 "Some of these have circumnavigated three times," Weaver said. "It is called a low ball. It stays right around 14,000 to 30,000 feet. It only weighs 12g and it is solar powered. It also requires a call sign and can be tracked,"

Yet another balloon is planned for the next school year.