Weather balloon heading to space
Students in UNM program launch weather balloons, test whether equipment can survive trip
Students in UNM program launch balloons to test whether equipment can survive the trip.
The University of New Mexico has been to the edge of Earth. Well, several of its weather balloons have.
The school’s Configurable Space Microsystems Innovations & Applications Center, or COSMIAC, launched a balloon from the Walmart in Edgewood on Monday morning. It was the third attempt by a small team of students led by UNM junior Jacy Bitsoie and New Mexico State senior Cheryl Chambellan to prove a command module box carrying four cameras can survive at heights nearing outer space.
The group is composed of students who are part of the Air Force Research Lab and UNM students funded by the National Science Foundation. It includes students from Rutgers University, Missouri University of Science and Technology and NMSU.
The summer project aims at studying the characteristics of the ionosphere, along with making a successful launch of a module command box, carried by a helium balloon, 100,000 feet in the air without its contents malfunctioning. The balloon carries both the box and a small parachute for when the balloon explodes.
Because temperature at those heights can reach 50 degrees below freezing, the box’s technological contents, such as cameras and a GPS unit, don’t often survive such conditions. The team’s prior attempts have resulted in malfunctioning cameras, along with other glitches.
This time around, students put a couple of hand warmers in the box and also insulated the cameras with foam. They also attached rings to the parachute so it wouldn’t get tangled.
The Monday morning launch was the most successful so far, Bitsoie and Chambellan said. After about two hours, the box and its parachute landed in Rio Rancho near Southern and N.M. 528.
“We can fail and still have the confidence to try again,” Chambellan said.
Earl Campbell, who at 66 proudly calls himself the oldest student in the Physics and Astronomy department at UNM, has overseen all of the group’s launches.
The retired software engineer, who decided to become an astrophysicist when retirement proved too monotonous, said the students’ work will help them understand what things can survive at which altitudes, and how.
“This is such a great tool for education, for high schools and colleges,” Campbell said.
The project also means students can get some spectacular photos of the Earth’s curvature. “This is pretty close to being in space,” Campbell said.
For Bitsoie and Chambellan, the project has been an unforgettable learning experience, especially in the field of trial and error.
“It’s been a lot of analyzing,” Bitsoie said. “It’s just amazing to see the collaborative work that we’re able to get done together.”