Up, Up and Away! STEM Summer Camp launches high-altitude balloon into the stratosphere

  • Published
  • By Bradley Hicks
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Tully recently reached heights that perhaps no other plush groundhog has before.

The high-altitude balloon to which the stuffed animal was attached lifted off from the grounds of the Hands-On Science Center, rising through the clouds and out of sight before touching the stratosphere and beginning its descent. When all was said and done, the balloon had climbed for nearly two hours and to more than 100,000 feet.

The June 19 launch of the balloon that led to Tully’s extraordinary voyage was part of the HOSC Air Force STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Summer Camp. Air Force STEM sponsored the event and the supplies for the balloon launch.

HOSC Air Force STEM Summer Camp is a four-week program that occurs during June and July, and a different topic of science is covered each day of the camp. The high-altitude balloon launch was intended to educate participants, which range from 6 to 12 years of age, about the atmospheric conditions that exist within the troposphere, the lowest region of the earth’s atmosphere from its surface to around 6 miles up, and the lower stratosphere, the region of the atmosphere that extends to about 32 miles above the earth’s surface.

“The kids learned about the history and multiple uses of high-altitude balloons and how to design a scientific experiment using a weather balloon to collect air properties data,” said Olga Oakley, Air Force STEM director for Arnold Air Force Base based out of the HOSC. “The kids participated in the assembly of the payload and during the launch phase.”

Components making up the high-altitude balloon included the balloon itself, which was designed to reach altitudes in excess of 30 kilometers, or nearly 19 miles, into the atmosphere. The balloon was inflated using helium as a lifting gas. An attached parachute utilized during the descent phase of the balloon reduced payload impact force at the time of touchdown.

Contained within the payload module was an atmospheric sounding system, a GPS and a camera, used document the trek and capture the tightly-secured Tully in all his glory as the balloon ascended through different layers of the atmosphere. The profiling system onboard was a sensors package used to measure temperature, pressure and relative humidity. The GPS tracker was used to track the trajectory of the balloon and report its position at 5-minute intervals.

Recorded data showed the balloon reached a maximum altitude of nearly 20 miles, or around 102,000 feet, above sea level. The distance traveled was about 200 km, or approximately 124 miles, and the total time it traveled was 2-and-a-half hours. The balloon eventually landed in a forest within the Bradyville community of Cannon County, about a 50-minute drive from the HOSC.

The balloon was recovered by the HOSC.

This event was led by Younes Baalla, recent graduate from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. During his studies at UTSI, Baalla performed around a dozen balloon launches as part of his graduate research thesis to study turbulence in the stratosphere. His past balloon experiments involved several local schools and one launch conducted last year at the HOSC.

After the launch, Oakley said Baalla conveyed to her that the high-altitude balloon launched during last month’s HOSC Air Force STEM Summer Camp traveled higher than any of his previously-launched balloons.

Both the recorded data and the video of the flight is posted on the HOSC website, which can be found at www.hosc.org.