Students in Experimental Physics launch Stratospheric Balloon

November 14, 2009

 

Throughout September and October 2009, the students in Phys3401 have prepared for the launch of a stratospheric balloon. Under the lead of Professor Scotty Gordon McIntosh, they constructed a series of probes for data collection during the balloon ascent. The helium-filled thin skin was expected to rise to a height of about 85,000 feet before failure, after which the load would fall back to the ground. Included were sensors for temperature, pressure, humidity, speed of sound, CO₂ concentration, polarization, photo- and UV measurements and others, but also two cameras, data loggers, GPS and a HAM radio. The balloon experiment was prepared and executed with the support from James Flaten from the Minnesota Space Consortium, a NASA program for STEM students in higher education.

 

On Saturday morning, November 14, 2009, the students assembled the balloon under freezing and dreary conditions under a low cloud ceiling on the free space under the Morris water tower. The expected landing place was close to Long Prairie. All probes and cameras were recovered later in the day. More data will appear here as they become available.

 

The “crew”: Will Setzer, Lewis Owen, Jeff Lind, Gordon McIntosh, Arthur Aaberg, Jacob Carney-Ubl, Jerry Kessler, Daron Zych, Johanna Martin, James Flaten	Assembling the probes.
Filling the balloon	Getting ready to launch  -  9:20 am. Launchvideo
One of the photographs taken from about 80,000 feet

S. Boyd