Local high school students assist college with near-space balloon launch
The weather balloon rises above Dean Watts Park moments before its release on Wednesday, May 16, 2012.
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Wednesday, May 17, 2012, 1:30 p.m. — Students from Nelson County High School assisted a team from Morehead State University with a near-space balloon launch Wednesday morning from Dean Watts Park.
- See more photos from the balloon launch and a map of its flight on the Nelson County Gazette Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/ncgazette
The helium-filled weather balloon flight was designed to carry a series of payloads to an altitude of about 80,000 feet before returning to earth. The goal was for the balloon to land in the Mercer/Boyle County area; it landed just short of its target.
Charlie Cantrill, information technology teacher at Nelson County Area Technical Center, and NCHS science teacher Bill Bennett both brought students to the launch site to assist the Morehead team with the balloon launch. Students helped the team attach the payloads, assist filling the balloon and helped the Morehead team actually launch the balloon with its payloads.
Cantrill’s class had helped create payloads that employed Amateur Radio (ham radio) for tracking and for telemetry. A voice beacon periodically identified the student payload in a digital voice repeating the ATC radio club callsign, K4SSA. The payload also allowed students on the ground to check the temperature of the payload — inside and out — during the flight.
Charlie Cantrill checks a payload prior to the balloon launch Wednesday at Dean Watts Park. High school students from NCHS and NCATC assisted a team from Morehead State University.
A second Amateur Radio-based payload provided GPS tracking data that allowed students and the Morehead team to track the balloon as it flew over Central Kentucky.
Assisted by the local students, the Morehead team began filling the balloon while other students stood at the ready to help keep the balloon’s payloads — each connected to the other by a length of nylon cord — from getting tangled before the launch. Once the balloon’s envelope was full, a short countdown preceded its release into a bright blue, cloudless summer sky.
The balloon rose quickly as it drifted off to the east. The Morehead team quickly packed their gear in order to track the balloon during its flight.
The balloon’s tracking payloads allowed students to track its progress on a website, www.APRS.fi. The balloon traveled in an easterly direction, though it reverse direction just north of the Lincoln Homestead State Park, travel westward for several miles before it reversed course and returned to its original easterly track.
The landing location hasn’t been confirmed by the Morehead team, but the tracking data shows the balloon was descending by parachute in an area just south of Mackville in Washington County along the Texas-Mackville Road.
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