High Altitude Balloon Team Completes First Launch
NCC Associate in Engineering students and members of the High Altitude Balloon Team (Luis) Felipe Caicedo, Bryan Holguin Herrera, and (George) Richard Green also presented their research predicting the landing point of their high altitude balloon payload at the NC Space Symposium held at North Carolina State University on Friday, April 5.
Following the launch on April 22, the team successfully recovered its payload just minutes after landing slightly southeast of Greenville. “We recovered it only 3.2 miles from where we predicted it would land,” Lawrence said. “The balloon and payload reached a maximum height of 91,750 feet and we captured some amazing pictures.”
After recovering the payload, and analyzing the data, the team members discovered a opportunity in their programming that could result in gaining more valuable data in the future. “Our students learned the importance of extensive testing prior to launch in order to make sure everything is working properly,” Lawrence said. “They will continue their research on predicting a landing zone, and adjusting weight and helium volume to gain maximum altitude as well.”
Grant funds for the project were provided by NC Space Grant and the NCC Foundation Mini-Grant.
The Nashtronauts are currently preparing a Post-Launch Assessment Report to submit to NC Space Grant that will include all of their findings. For more information, follow the @therealnashtronauts on Instagram.