**Learning Unit - Design a Mission to the Edge of Space**

Draft

**Shermane Austin, Medgar Evers College, CUNY**

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="2.375in" height="1.78125in"}

Target audience: Students in Grades 6-12

1\. **Introduction**

BalloonSAT projects are low-cost, low-weight suborbital investigations
undertaken as university-based or amateur radio projects. There are a
number of existing projects in various regions of the US and most are
sponsored by state Space Grant Consortia.

This learning module is intended as an entry-level step to stimulate
students to participate in NASA-related educational mission design
projects by encouraging scientific thinking and investigation as well
has providing widely available launch vehicles. Students can design
simple team-based experiments for less-competitive exploration. The
investigations need not necessarily be unique or innovative but should
express a clear scientific objective with a methodology and plan
modeling the scientific method. This learning unit can also be used to
explore comparisons between the climate of Earth and Mars. The learning
unit is based on background material in Earth Science-related curriculum
including weather-related modules and planetary science modules.

2\. **BalloonSAT vehicles**

The flight vehicle ascends to heights of over 100,000 feet where
pressure is similar to the surface pressure on Mars and student
projects/ideas may explore either Mars or Earth-based investigations.
The flight vehicle consists of a 1500 gram latex balloon similar to
those used by the National Weather Service for atmospheric soundings. It
also includes payload modules consisting of communications and tracking
equipment, imaging modules -- either digital cameras or streaming video
-- and science payloads for investigations. Science payloads have
included temperature and humidity sensors, altimeters, CO2 monitors,
Geiger counters to measure cosmic ray radiation, magnetometers,
thermopile arrays, ozonesondes and dust collectors or particulate
samplers. Student investigations have also included biological
experiments to investigate effects of temperature and pressure.

3.**BalloonSAT environment**

Background material: weather-related modules

a.  Atmospheric layers

b.  Atmospheric soundings

> Interpreting Skew-T diagrams
>
> Accessing text data

c.  Using sounding data for flight prediction

> Activity 1

-Using the Internet, locate the sounding nearest your school for the
previous day. If you were to launch a balloon flight at 7am and expected
the balloon to burst at an altitude of 80,000 feet, what temperature
would you expect at that altitude? What would be the minimum temperature
for the flight? At what altitude are the strongest winds?

> Activity 2

\- Attached is an abbreviated temperature data log from a BalloonSAT
flight. The temperature and relative humidity are actually recorded
every two minutes.

Plot the temperatures on a graph and answer the following questions:

When is the balloon in the troposphere?

During what period is it in the stratosphere?

Based on the temperature data, what can be determined about when the
balloon burst?

\-

[BalloonSAT Temperature Data]{.underline}

> Date/Time Temp(F)
>
> 07/02/05 09:20:49.0 70.39
>
> 07/02/05 09:30:49.0 71.08
>
> 07/02/05 09:40:49.0 62.17
>
> 07/02/05 09:50:49.0 48.25
>
> 07/02/05 10:00:49.0 34.88
>
> 07/02/05 10:10:49.0 27.62
>
> 07/02/05 10:20:49.0 25.93
>
> 07/02/05 10:30:49.0 28.45
>
> 07/02/05 10:40:49.0 30.91
>
> 07/02/05 10:50:49.0 30.1
>
> 07/02/05 11:00:49.0 18.8
>
> 07/02/05 11:10:49.0 20.64
>
> 07/02/05 11:20:49.0 34.1
>
> 07/02/05 11:30:49.0 42.46
>
> 07/02/05 11:40:49.0 48.96
>
> 07/02/05 11:50:49.0 54.58
>
> 07/02/05 12:00:49.0 59.42
>
> 07/02/05 12:10:49.0 63.54
>
> 07/02/05 12:20:49.0 66.96
>
> 07/02/05 12:30:49.0 70.39
>
> 07/02/05 12:40:49.0 73.15

4.  **Global Positioning System(GPS) and tracking**

> GPS is a satellite based navigational system made up of 24 satellites.
> Originally intended for military applications, the government made it
> available for civilian use in the 1980's. The balloon vehicle includes
> a GPS receiver that obtains the latitude, longitude and altitude of
> the balloon every one minute or so. The GPS receiver is connected to
> an onboard radio that transmits positional information to the ground
> every minute. This enables the ground control crew to track the flight
> of the balloon and, using topographic mapping software, navigate to
> its landing site.
>
> Basic concepts:
>
> -understanding the satellite footprints and how position is determined
>
> -understanding latitude and longitude measures of position
>
> GPS Activity:
>
> The latitude and longitude coordinates of a BalloonSAT flight are
> given below. The locations and altitude are recorded every two
> minutes.

1.  Using the attached gridded map, plot the start, burst and landing
    locations of the BalloonSAT flight.

2.  Using instructions to import the data into an Excel spreadsheet,
    (Step-by-step instructions for importing text data and using the
    average function will be included in this module.)

    a.  Determine the average ascent rate

    b.  Determine the average descent rate

    c.  Determine how long it took for the balloon to burst and how long
        it took for the balloon to land.

    d.  Plot the altitude data. What observations can be made about the
        ascent and descent?

> Latitude Longitude Altitude
>
> 44.49250 -73.16800 324
>
> 44.62567 -73.11633 2503
>
> 44.62317 -73.12150 5163
>
> 44.61850 -73.12750 7876
>
> 44.61267 -73.13583 11078
>
> 44.59867 -73.14400 14999
>
> 44.58917 -73.15267 18105
>
> 44.58033 -73.15983 21022
>
> 44.56183 -73.18217 25408
>
> 44.54733 -73.19867 28170
>
> 44.53100 -73.22183 31005
>
> 44.50233 -73.26367 34148
>
> 44.46850 -73.30617 37868
>
> 44.43883 -73.34850 41828
>
> 44.43033 -73.35500 45712
>
> 44.41917 -73.35250 50072
>
> 44.41400 -73.35367 53392
>
> 44.40867 -73.35367 57893
>
> 44.40783 -73.35733 63385
>
> 44.40733 -73.36033 58625
>
> 44.40350 -73.36150 52821
>
> 44.38683 -73.36567 41824
>
> 44.36433 -73.40133 37717
>
> 44.33250 -73.44000 33869
>
> 44.30900 -73.47917 30467
>
> 44.29350 -73.50217 26979
>
> 44.27867 -73.52033 23646
>
> 44.26917 -73.53383 20776
>
> 44.26000 -73.54167 17065
>
> 44.25117 -73.55183 14231
>
> 44.24283 -73.55850 11295
>
> 44.23933 -73.56550 8726
>
> 44.23600 -73.57383 6416
>
> 44.23333 -73.58017 4225
>
> 44.22767 -73.58083 757
>
> 44.22783 -73.58033 711

5.  **Balloon flight dynamics**

> Predicting potential landing locations is an important task to insure
> that the payloads are retrievable. Two elements involved in flight
> predictions are the sounding data from the NWS site closest to the
> launch location and determining the ascent rate of the balloon.
>
> Basic concepts: understanding of relationship among balloon diameter,
> nozzle lift, payload weight, free lift, burst altitude and ascent
> rate.
>
> Activity 1 -- exploring relationships with sample balloon data for a
> 1200 gram balloon with various amounts of helium and payload weights.
> I have an unfinished Java applet to visualize the theoretical
> concepts.
>
> Activity 2 -- Classroom based balloon activity. Students will design a
> small payload cube from aluminum foil, use grains of rice to vary
> payload weights. These will be attached to small party balloons and
> students will determine how much helium is required to get the
> balloons to the ceiling. This activity is a simplified version of an
> existing activity used by the Borealis project.

6.  **Mission design**

> Basic concept: Review of scientific method
>
> a\. Preliminary launch constraints
>
> These are intended to satisfy the requirements of various balloon
> flight vehicles:
>
> -Experiments must be self-contained and fit in or on a 6-in cubic
> payload module.
>
> -Experiments may not exceed a total weight of 2 lbs
>
> -Experiments should not exceed a cost of \$100
>
> -Experiments must clearly define environmental requirements, e.g.
> internal temperatures must be above freezing, non-insulated modules
> are desired, etc.
>
> -Experiments should define seasonal requirements, if any. Note: very
> few balloon flight vehicles in temperate climates launch in the winter
>
> b\. Mission teams

The mission proposal and design should be implemented with student
teams. Each team should designate:

A science coordinator -- responsible for gathering ideas and recording
input for science objectives.

An engineering/technical coordinator -- responsible for coordinating
student input for implementation of the science investigation

An overall team leader -- responsible for coordinating project tasking,
schedule and mission proposal.

7.  **Launch application**

> Submit a mini-proposal for a BalloonSAT launch. The student team
> proposal should include:
>
> -identification and location of school
>
> -names of student team members and coordinators
>
> -science objective
>
> -proposed investigation
>
> -budget
>
> -schedule
>
> -requests for external assistance, if needed

8.  **Follow-up activities**

> -Explore NASA-based student design projects.