BalloonChanges in Altitudes

Balloon Satellite Program                              
                                   

Sponsored by the Arizona Space Grant Consortium 

We are grateful to the previous support made by a grant from the
Education & Public Outreach arm of the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission and
from Science Foundation Arizona,  
       which made this program possible during the last 5 years.
  
    

 

NEXT SCHEDULED LAUNCH - April 28, 2012 in Maricopa, AZ


Intern Program      AIMER         Stargazer      Online Applications 
   NAU Physics and Astronomy     Changes In Altitudes        Home

NEW
April 30, 2011 LAUNCH
YouTube VIDEO Link
Taken by Prof. David Iadevaia - Pima Community College

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Please click on the Link below to view
a "live action" 3 minute video of our February 2007
Balloon Sat Launch which demonstrates the
balloon filling process and the actual launch.

This is a large file (28 MB) so please be
patient while it loads.

Launch Video Link

Recent Launches
2011 photos coming soon

The April 16, 2011 payloads reached an altitude of 94,645 ft. PHOTOS LINK

The April 30, 2011 payloads reached an altitude of 88,616 ft. PHOTOS LINK
Video LINK

April 10, 2010 Photos LINK
May 1, 2010 Photos LINK

______________________________

October 2010 Teacher Workshop

Photos - LINK

The payloads reached an altitude of 87,503 ft.

 

Student Video Link

Click on the Link above to view
a "live action" video on YouTube, of the students from Cimarron Springs Elementary School, Surprise, AZ, on March 31, 2007.
The video was created entirely by the student team and demonstrates the pre-launch activities, launch and chase.

 

To view an NAU TV segment about our program,
p
lease go to www.tv.nau.edu/insidenau
 
 We are InsideNAU show #106
Segment #3.

 

Click here to go to Photo Album

2010 BalloonSat Teachers

Kaci Heins - Northland Preparatory Academy, Flagstaff
Jessica Hurley - Marshall Elementary School, Flagstaff
Mike Laird - Sinagua Middle School, Flagstaff
Peggy Ostrander - Brimhall Jr. High School, Mesa

Arizona schools & teachers who have
participated in our program since 2003:

Robin Blackford - Mingus Union High School - Cottonwood
Chad Davis - Sechrist Elementary School - Flagstaff
Dori Lucy - Sechrist Elementary School - Flagstaff
Maura Neill - Sierra Vista Middle School - Sierra Vista
Mike Mackie - Sage Elementary School - Phoenix
Florence Speight - Canyon Ridge Elementary School - Surprise
Rick Treadway - Flagstaff Middle School - Flagstaff
Vicki Laskowski - Bagdad Unified Schools - Bagdad
Mary Lara - DeMiguel Elementary School - Flagstaff
Jackie Drewett - Tuba City Boarding School - Tuba City
Lynda Matheson - Bullhead City Schools - Bullhead City
Matt Malloy - Camp Verde High School - Camp Verde
Brian Bingham - Deer Valley High School - Glendale
Laurie Parker - Cottonwood Middle School - Cottonwood
Mark Calhoun - Sabino High School - Tucson
Catherine Love - Kayenta Middle School - Kayenta
Chris Tokarz - Rock Point Community School - Rock Point
Brenda Wolpa - Canyon del Oro High School - Tucson
Tori Carrasco - Picacho School - Picacho
Anne English - Salt River High School - Scottsdale
Teresa Lang - Kaibeto Boarding School - Kaibeto
John Persichilli - Many Farms High School - Many Farms
Robert Vranas - Cottonwood Middle School - Cottonwood

Julie Bais and Terry Pemberton - Granite Mountain Middle School - Prescott
Anne McGinley - Shiprock Alternative High School - Shiprock, NM
Martha Rope - Gila Crossing Community School - Laveen
 
Andrea Strock - Perry High School - Gilbert
Bob McMillen - Wickenburg High School, Wickenburg


 

 

What is a Balloon Satellite?              What is "Changes in Altitudes?"

A balloon satellite is a scientific payload that has equipment inside to photograph and measure the physical properties of the Earth's atmosphere during the ascent and descent of the high altitude weather balloon. 

What do we measure?      pressure
                                        temperature
                                        relative humidity

What tools do we use?     HOBO - pressure gauge
                                       HOBO - temperature
                                       Camera

 

 payload

Changes in Altitudes is a Balloon Satellite program for
5th-12th grade teachers and students, that started in 2003 with support from the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission Education/Public Outreach efforts.  In 2008, this grant ended and we recently received funding to continue in 2009-2010 from Science Foundation Arizona and NASA. The goal of our program is to establish the elements of a small weather balloon satellite program at each participating school, that can be sustained by the school districts at a minimal cost.

Teachers are selected from schools across Arizona through a competitive application process, to receive training at a summer Balloon Satellite Workshop.  Once they are trained, they get to put together a student team that will design, construct and launch and recover small balloon payloads.  These payloads robotically measure the physical properties of the Earth's atmosphere as a function of time during the ascent & descent of a high altitude weather balloon, such as pressure, temperature and relative humidity 

NAU staff and volunteers from ANSR (Arizona Near Space Research)
assist with organizing and running all launch activities.

All materials, travel, room & board fees for the weekend launches
are covered by the Grant.
except for a $60/student participation fee for each student that is paid prior to the launch.

 

 
Program Highlights


Teachers participate in a Workshop paid for by the Space Grant
(typically held on a weekend in mid-October)

Choose a team of 4 students to train to build their own payload

Participate in up to 4 weekend launches over the course of 2 years
(w/4 different student teams)

Be part of a group of 5-10 schools participating in each launch

Be part of a real balloon chase and recover the payloads

Participate in follow-up meeting to discuss experiment/launch results during the launch weekend

Take this valuable lesson back to your classroom and share the experience

The only cost to your school or your students is a $60 per student participation fee that is due prior to the launch.

Quotes from participants

"I felt everything went very smoothly.  Part of science is not always knowing the outcome.  It's important for students to experience this".                             
      Mary Lara, Teacher, DeMiguel Elementary School

 

"I feel that my students became extremely excited about the possibility of a successful flight, and were truly engaged in what they were doing.  This trip solidified a strong working relationship between the students and I, and their productivity has increased by 100%".            
                              
Christine Tokarz, Teacher -
                          Rock Point Community School

"Looking into the box and having the Rock Point students explain what they did was excellent.  My students were able to understand each part and why it was there.  The overall experience of being at the hotel meetings and the launch, with the other student teams and adults was excellent".  
                                 Jackie Drewett, Teacher -
                           Tuba City Boarding School

"it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not a lot of people do this.  That's why I wanted to do it.  I can't wait to see the pictures".

                    N.Schafer - Bullhead City Jr. High student

      "I had to learn how to solder.  I've never done that before and this has   gotten me more interested in Physics".  

                          M. Jordan - Deer Valley High School student

 

 

 

 

   

 

Welcome to !

For details and photos of some of our other launches, click on this ANSR logo and go to Flight Archives and/or Flight Images.  We are Launches #16, #18, #24  #29, #30 , #35, #36, #40 and #44. Please note that maintenance of the archives is under construction at the ANSR site and may not currently be available..                                                                                                                                                  

View of Earth's atmosphere at 100,000 ft.


Photo was taken from a student payload camera in the upper atmosphere (near 100,000 ft. above the Earth).
The small white dot on the top of the photo is the crescent Moon from 2/10/07.
 

For more information, please contact:
Kathleen Stigmon
Sr. Program Coordinator, NAU/NASA Spacegrant Program
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Northern Arizona University Box 6010
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6010
(928) 523-8067
kathleen.stigmon(at)nau(dot)edu

Contact us at spacegrant(at)nau.edu

Updated on March 23, 2012 by Kathleen Stigmon.
Send all reports of broken links or other bugs to
this address.