UNLV engineering student Ravi Charr took up his position under a white tent on the campus lawn as the summer sun baked the experimenters and their equipment and pressed send.
The ground station broadcast encrypted communications to the sky via a satellite network, instructing the helium-filled balloon, which towered nearly as tall as the surrounding trees, to vent.
Several minutes passed before the student and faculty team realized something was wrong. The balloon carrying the experiment did not descend in the wake of the neatly packed payload. Problem: Dead battery.
“That’s why we do commissioning,” said Lloyd Ramirez, a mechanical engineering major.
“The hardest part of all of this is ventilation. I like things like this to happen so I know what else to add to my checklist of nuances of the day that don’t usually happen. It’s from.”
The day is October 14th, and an annular solar eclipse will be visible in Las Vegas, passing directly over eastern and northern Nevada. Ramirez and his teammates will be stationed in Winnemucca during prime time to participate in NASA’s National Eclipse Balloon Project (NEBP).
Their goal is to launch a balloon carrying a 12-pound payload and a live-streaming camera nearly 100,000 feet into Earth’s stratosphere to collect data on one of the most unusual celestial phenomena.
“It doesn’t happen that often, so we need to take advantage of that,” said Matt Pusko, visiting assistant professor at UNLV School of Engineering and project leader. “There won’t be an annular solar eclipse near us for at least the next 15 years.”
Relationship between UNLV and NASA
UNLV, one of several teams across the country, was selected by NASA to participate in NEBP’s engineering division for not just one, but two solar eclipses. This month’s annular solar eclipse is a precursor to the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
“The main goal of this project is to educate people about the fact that the moon actually revolves around the Earth and this whole system revolves around the sun,” Pusko said. . “This is a great outreach opportunity. It’s also a great engineering opportunity.”
All teams will participate in both events and the resulting data will be analyzed and published. Several other college teams will be stationed alongside UNLV in Winnemucca.
UNLV’s team roster includes seven undergraduate students, one graduate student, and student and faculty collaborators from the University of Nevada, Reno.
“The more balloons we get in the air and the more we look down at the shadows moving across the globe, the better we can understand what’s going on,” Pusko said. “If you actually look at the balloon on a map, you can see its current altitude, speed, and temperature above.”
“Apply it lightly in the middle.”
On a Sunday morning in mid-September, students gathered on UNLV’s campus for a complete dry run, from launch preparation to takedown, and practiced various roles. The team spread blue tarpaulin on the lawn adjacent to the chemistry building, set up ground stations and radar antennas, and ensured that experiments were safely packaged and tied together with a paracord harness system.
“There’s a paracord line to connect the boxes, and they go up one after the other about 7 feet apart,” said Lee Wigginton, a civil engineering major. “They have to descend in a certain order, because the closer they are, the easier they can communicate with each other.”
As mock launches have proven, something as seemingly simple as a battery issue can throw you off course. And when the eclipse passes, the team has a limited amount of time to make sure the balloon launches without any problems.
The Winnemucca partial solar eclipse will begin at 8:06 a.m., and the annular solar eclipse will begin at 9:20 a.m. and last just a few minutes.The partial solar eclipse ends at 10:47 a.m.
“Someone will be in charge of the camera payload, making sure the battery is connected, making sure it’s powered on, and making sure we’re getting the feed,” Pusko said. “We also have a satellite modem that can communicate over the internet right up to the balloon. This allows us to do things like open vents to make it neutrally buoyant, and also send a line to cut the balloon. can.”
Achieving neutral buoyancy means that once the balloon reaches a given altitude, it will float there without rising any further. This is the main goal of the project. They want to make sure the experiment doesn’t fail because the balloon unexpectedly pops. The research team also hopes to measure gravitational waves in the atmosphere.
“When the moon is in front of the sun, the gravitational pull from the sun and moon will be a little stronger because the sun and moon are facing the same direction,” Pusko said.
Next is Total Eclipse
The total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 will require UNLV students to travel a little farther to launch their balloons and their accompanying payloads, as the eclipse will follow different paths across the country.
“We’re going to Texas to get the full picture,” Ramirez said. “We tap right into the middle of it.”
The balloon’s payload may also include additional, potentially more challenging experiments that the team will develop over the coming months, perhaps in collaboration with researchers across campus.
“I think today’s simulation was really challenging,” Ramirez said as the balloon vented and began its descent. “After months of work, we were really excited to see the balloons take to the sky. We’re looking forward to the launch in October, but can’t wait for April. Longer, bigger days It will be food.”