Seminar: High Altitude Balloon Experiments

This Meetup is in the Hampton Branch at Oak Hill, 5125 Convict Hill Rd., 512-974-9900.

James (Jim) Choate will present the seminar on the Nature Nerds and Physics for Fun meetups high altitude balloon experiments for citizen science.

Nature Nerds of Austin -- https://www.meetup.com/nature-nerds-of-austin/

Citizen Science -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science

HABEX - High Altitude Balloon Experiments

The reference to experiments is two-fold. The first is in regard to the actual balloon construction and flight processes. The second is a reference to the payload and what it does during the flight (e.g. images, environmental measurements, etc.). To be clear, there will be two design processes going on in parallel, the balloon proper and the payload.

One of the primary design considerations will be the use of CanSat techniques in the design and construction process. We may need to build a technology demonstrator for this (i.e. dummy payload) before the actual flight process.

CanSat -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CanSat

Design Process:

Design/Buy > Assemble > Test > Loop (Will it fly?) > Flight Plan

Meeting Sequence:

Pilot - Initial meeting (possibly two) to gauge interest and get first round of participants.
Design - Group responsible for the first four stages of the Design Process. - Multiple meetings. (FYI - We're in this loop currently.)
Pre-Flight - Review process to date and verify readiness - Set the date of launch - Possibly two meetings
Launch - Two teams (Launch and Recovery)
Clean up - Launch team cleans up launch site and transitions to tracking and telemetry
Recovery - Recovery team (possibly several groups) chases the balloon and tries to stay ahead of it.
Post-Flight - Review, analysis, and release of flight report (including experimental results if any).

Flight Plan:

• Pre-Flight
• Schedule
• Assembly
• Launch
• Tracking
• Recovery
• Review/Release Results

Constraints:

• COVID 19
• Budget
• Resources/Tools/Facilities
• Legal (e.g. FAA rules about weight and number of modules)
• People
• Transportation

Related Technologies:
Arduino -- https://www.arduino.cc/ -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino
Raspberry Pi -- https://www.raspberrypi.org/ -- https://www.raspberrypi.com/ -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
LoRaWAN -- https://lora-alliance.org/about-lorawan/ -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa
Iridium -- https://www.iridium.com/ -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation
The Things Network -- https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/ -- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_Network
Laird Sentrius RG1xx LoRaWAN Gateway -- https://www.lairdconnect.com/wireless-modules/lorawan-solutions/sentrius-rg1xx-lorawan-gateway-wi-fi-ethernet-optional-lte-us-only
SeeeDuino LoRaWAN w/ GPS -- https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeeduino-LoRaWAN-W-GPS-p-2781.html
RockBLOC 9603 -- https://www.iridium.com/products/rock-seven-rockblock-9603/
MikRoe GPS Click -- https://www.mikroe.com/gps-click
NVidia Jetson Nano (Future Project Development) -- https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-nano-developer-kit -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Jetson
Dynamic DNS -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_DNS
No-IP -- https://www.noip.com/

High Altitude Balloon Organizations:
Edge of Space Sciences -- https://www.eoss.org/
StratoStar -- https://stratostar.com/
Eclipse Ballooning Project -- https://eclipse.montana.edu/
TT7 High Altitude Balloon -- http://tt7hab.blogspot.com/
Stratospheric Balloon Association -- https://www.stratoballooning.org/
Overlook Horizon -- https://www.overlookhorizon.com/

If you're interested in science and technology and would like to participate there are plenty of opportunities out there!

Whitepapers:
The Critical Importance of Citizen Science Data -- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fclim.2021.650760/full
No PhDs needed: how citizen science is transforming research -- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07106-5

CitizenScience.gov -- https://www.citizenscience.gov/#
NASA Citizen Science -- https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience
Citizen Science Association -- https://citizenscience.org/
scistarter -- https://scistarter.org/citizen-science
National Geographic - Citizen Science -- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/citizen-science
National Park Service - Citizen Science -- https://www.nps.gov/subjects/citizenscience/citizen-science.htm
Scientific American - Citizen Science -- https://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/
Society for Science -- https://www.societyforscience.org/research-at-home/citizen-science/
National Weather Service -- https://www.weather.gov/education/citizen
Cornell Lab of Ornithology -- https://www.birds.cornell.edu/citizenscience
Smithsonian -- https://www.si.edu/volunteer/citizenscience