Friday is Georgia STEM Day 2013

Chase's Engineering Club will be celebrating by testing our wind turbines and crashing our egg cars!

What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space?

Well, the weather was quite unpredictable this weekend! Other than scrubbing the launch, there's no news to report. Here's a cool science experiment video for you though- the idea came from 2 high school students in Nova Scotia.

Launch Postponed!

The Chase in Space weather balloon launch has been postponed due to the weather forecast this weekend. There is a 40% chance of rain for Saturday and the cloud cover is predicted to be 89%- FAA regulations for unmanned free balloons do not permit launching in these conditions. 

An alternate date has been set for Saturday, May 11th @ 10 AM from Sandy Creek Park. We will update the project blog with any news. Thank you all for your support! 

Here's a peek at our SPACESHIP!

The total weight of the rig is 2.59 lbs. We are still tweaking bit and pieces. Our principal, Dr. Kurtz, is working on the Helium tank hose adapter for the balloon fill.

Here is our "space frame" -the small object in the front is our Pratt Microbeacon- we will probably use polyethylene coated, cloth backed, pressure sensitive tape to attach it for the mission.

Here is the parachute and radar reflector. They will be separated by 15 feet of line for the mission. This should help prevent the parachute shroud lines from tangling.

Our "flight computer" from High Altitude Science. This unit will log our data and store it on a microSD card. 

Data Recorded

GPS

• Date / Time (Zulu)
• Latitude / Longitude
• Altitude (meters)
• Ground Speed (knots)
• Compass Heading (0 to 259 deg.)

Sensor Module

• Pressure (mbar* / hPa)
• Temperature (100ths deg C)

GoPro HD video camera #1- with Battery BacPac (extends recording time)

GoPro HD video camera #2- with Battery BacPac (extends recording time)

SPOT GPS tracker

Saturday is NOT looking good!

We are NOT looking good for Saturday's launch from Sandy Creek Park @ 10AM. Right now our predictions have the balloon landing very close to the Savannah River, about 2.5 hours after the launch! The cameras and GPS tracker are waterproof, and the bamboo frame should give us some flotation (just in case...) We have received FAA clearance and will be coordinating with the air traffic controllers for our zone.

Here's a link to one of the sites used to make the predictions: http://weather.uwyo.edu/polar/balloon_traj.html

Selecting "GoogleEarth KML" as the output allows you to view the predicted flight path as a 3D Google Earth file. You can download Google Earth for free: http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/

A time for reflection...

We have constructed a radar reflector for the Chase in Space rig. This device will help our spaceship show up on aircraft radar. There has never been a reported collision between a weather balloon and an aircraft and we wish to keep it that way!

What are radar reflectors?
Radar reflectors are simple devices that are used to make something more visible to radars. For example, kayakers in foggy areas use radar reflectors to avoid being run over by bigger boats (with the radars); weather balloons have reflectors that allow them to appear in Air Traffic Control radars, and so on.

How do they work?
They are typically built to have reflective surfaces (eg of metal) in 3D at 90-degrees at each other. Incoming radar waves bounce off one, two, three surfaces and head back to the source direction. The principle behind them is similar to the one that makes you always see your 'eye' in the point where two mirrors cross each other at 90 degrees. 
(source: http://www.instructables.com/id/Lightweight-Radar-Reflector/)

The launch site is: Sandy Creek Park

We will be launching from Sandy Creek Park on Saturday, April 27th @ 10AM. This date will be subject to the weather. We will post updates as we get closer in.

Inside the Original Space Dive: Joseph Kittinger on 1960 Record Jump

Many students have been asking: "Can we ride up with the cameras?" Our balloon will only provide around 6-8 pounds of lift, so no one will be along for ride. Humans have reached these heights by balloon though. Felix Baumgartner recently completed a record-breaking balloon mission, but the original "Balloon Hero" was a man named Joe Kittinger. His record stood for 52 years!

Read his personal account of this mission, written back in 1960:

Inside the Original Space Dive: Joseph Kittinger on 1960 Record Jump

Deep Freeze

We know that space is cold. Our experiment won't be in deep space, but we do need to make sure everything will work well below freezing. Engineers use reliability testing to make sure that every part of a system performs correctly under all possible conditions.

We devised a little test for some of our equipment. The SPOT2 GPS Tracker and the GoPro HERO2 (with battery BacPac) survived our "cold tempurature testing" -they continued to function perfectly after a 2 hour visit to the deep freeze. The freezer is set to 0°F (-18C). .

Launch Date: Saturday, April 27th @ 10:00 A.M.

We have set a launch date! The location of the launch is Sandy Creek Park.

No fog for our blog...

(Source: magicseaweed.com)

We have been reading reports that the GoPro waterproof housing can fog up when the air temps inside the case are higher than the outside air (space is really cold so we need to think about that). Any moisture inside the camera housing will condense. If there is enough condensation, it will fog the lens.

Learn about the dew point here: http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/dewpoint.htm


Here's a possible solution, found on a camera forum:

"...a 1min blast of dry air-conditioned air either from a car vent or building aircon will fix the issue with a waterproof housing.Hold the open case in front of the vent and the camera (separately) for 1 min, let the air circulate inside the SD slot and battery compartment (open slightly), then assemble and close while still in front of the vent (6'' away). Don't open until filming job is finished and keep in cool place out of the sun till ready to start filming. One other thing, use dry hands, as sweat will vaporize into fog as well.This has worked for me in both HD1 and HD2 cameras under all conditions, it's simple science, based on dew point. Google it. If you're still worried, place some kitchen tissue paper towel squares in the space between the camera and the housing at the side and bottom."

Source: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/micro-pov-camera-systems/507618-gopro-fogging-issues.html

Sticky business...

We are thinking about what type of epoxy to use to join our frame together. We need an epoxy that can adhere to wood, metal, and plastic and more importantly, can withstand temps of +40 to -60 degrees Centigrade. High structural loads will probably not be encountered as the whole system weighs under 2 lbs. Thermal shock, different rates of material expansion and contraction, tension, compression, shear, peel resistance-that's a lot to ask of an adhesive! The aerospace industry uses epoxies, so we emailed a supplier (Henkel Corporation) to see what they recommended. They got back to us overnight! Here's what Nicole from Henkel said:

Henkel Inquiry - Case #: 00106446 

"That sounds like a pretty cool project! For what you described, I would definitely go with something in our epoxy line. In general, our epoxies withstand -54 to 82 degrees C. They are excellent bonders to glass and metal and are very good on wood as well. The E-120HP (item #29353)  would be suitable, it has the longest open time of the high performance epoxies. The 120 in the name designates the amount of minutes you have to work with the product/ amount of time you have to put your parts into place. We also have E-60HP (item #29319) and E-20HP (item #29314) if you would like a shorter working time. For each of these products, full cure and maximum shear strength will be achieved after 24 hrs. To apply this epoxy you will need a manual dispenser (98472) and mixing nozzles (98455) as well."

Best of Luck,

Nicole Lavoie
Technical Information Representative
Henkel Adhesive Technologies - AG North America
One Henkel Way
Rocky Hill, CT USA

Engineering Club in the news...

Check it out here: http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-04-02/young-engineers-chase-street-elementary-test-their-creations

Bamboozled!

We are considering a "perimeter frame" design to mount the equipment, as opposed to using a Styrofoam cooler. The rationale is that a cooler can bounce and turn over quite easily on landing. The SPOT GPS tracker needs to be facing up (towards the satellites) to transmit effectively- if it gets flipped over, we might have trouble receiving the tracking signal. A square or triangular frame (about 36"-40" per side) would give a more stable platform. The downside is less protection for the equipment.

During our research for frame materials (looking at wood, carbon fiber, PVC, etc.), we stumbled across a company that builds bicycle frames from bamboo: http://www.calfeedesign.com/products/bamboo/

Let's see:

• Light weight
• Very strong
• More eco friendly than Styrofoam
• FREE

How will it do in space? Not sure as we have found no evidence of bamboo ever going there. Only one way to find out!

Here's our first experiment with joining 2 pieces using epoxy and twine (destructive testing to follow):

What is Chase in Space?

Chase in Space is a project of the Chase Street Elementary School Engineering Club. The goal of Chase in Space is to design, build, and launch a capsule that will fly high enough to capture images of the earth's curvature (from the edge of SPACE!) We will use a helium-filled weather balloon to lift the capsule to a height of approximately 90,000 ft above the surface of the earth. Two GoPro video cameras will be used to capture high definition video footage. A small computer processor will log temperature, pressure, GPS coordinates, ground speed, and altitude data throughout the flight, When the balloon reaches maximum height, it will expand enough to burst-an attached parachute will allow the capsule to fall gently to Earth. An onboard GPS tracker will transmit a signal (under ~30,000 ft.) that will allow the recovery team to locate the capsule on the ground. The entire flight should take between 3-4 hours.

Our SPOT GPS tracker has arrived!

Cool beans- We now have our SPOT GPS tracker up and running. The webpage for the tracker is:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qmtg2XjSaS2qSnNKi0mUVicjdAEdnIph

I'm going to travel around today with the tracker and see how it performs.