Student Ballooning for Aerospace
Workforce Development
T.G. Guzik and J.P. Wefel
Louisiana State University
Lessons Learned Workshop
August 9, 2004
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Two Extremes
• The Aerospace engineer / scientist
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–
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Expert in practical skills
Familiar with team work
Write numerous proposals, reports, documents
Daily management of people, money and time
• The entering undergraduate student
– Few practical skills
• No “Heathkits”, or High School auto or wood shops
– Many have problems with writing and presentations
• Grammar, spelling, organization, argument presentation
– Somewhat computer “literate” (web capable)
• Little programming, CAD or data analysis experience
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How do we go from one to the other?
• Need to provide “hands-on” practical experience
• Need to integrate classroom “theory” with real
applications
• Need to improve communication skills
• Need knowledge about and experience with, team work
and management
• Some Engineering Departments address such issues
– “Capstone” or Design courses in last year
• Most Science Departments have no organized method
for handling this situation
– Students pickup whatever they can along the way
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Space Grant has developed a national effort
• Many higher education institutions across U.S. are engaging
students in design, construction and operation of aerospace
payloads
– Small payloads launched on sounding balloons
– Compact Earth-orbiting satellites (e.g. CubeSat)
• Space Grant effort is referred to as “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly”
– Represents staged approach of moving from simple sounding balloon
payloads, to LEO CubeSats, to, eventually, student built payloads on
Mars.
– Currently ~30 states are engaging students in some variant of this
program
– Website at http://ssp.arizona.edu/sgsatellites/programs.shtml
• The Louisiana program, Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for
Students (ACES), began in 2002
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ACES in Louisiana
• Goals included the following
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Attract new students to aerospace related programs
Provide background on how to develop programs
Practical experience with sensors, electronics & systems
Retain students in science by exciting their imagination
• Implemented pilot version with NASA funding during
2002-2003 academic year
– Test bed program concepts
– Use LSU expertise in scientific ballooning
– Build upon “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” program
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The ACES Basic Concept
• Use a latex sounding balloon as the vehicle
– Up to 12 lbs payload without FAA waiver
– Altitude up to ~100,000 feet
• Trained students to use knowledge about the
project life cycle and project management
• Students were exposed
to skills not normally
available in
conventional
classrooms.
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ACES Structure
• Involved students from LSU and SU
– About 15 students organized in teams of 3-4
– Students committed to 4 hours / week (took attendance)
– Paid student wage for up to 10 hours / week
• Weekly contact Tuesday & Thursday evening
– One or two 1 hr lectures and 3+ hrs of activities
– Talks on electronics, programming, payload design, project
management & life cycle, technical aspects of high powered
model rocket, radio telemetry & communication
– Activities include CricketSat, CanSat and BalloonSat
• Launch trip to NSBF (May 2003) resulted in the
successful flight of three student built payloads
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ACES Evolved into LA ACES
• The “lessons learned” from the pilot ACES program
are incorporated into the current LA ACES program
– Involve student teams from institutions across Louisiana
– Formalize the training aspect of the program with a series of
lectures and hands-on activities (Student Ballooning Course)
– Balloon support activities centered at LSU-BR
• NASA approved LA ACES funding 2/2004
• Student Ballooning Course developed during Spring &
Summer 2004
• Instructor training workshop held during May, 2004
• Begin activities at UNO, LaTech, ULL, SU-BR &
LSU-BR by fall semester 2004
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Fall semester builds basic skills
• Proceed through the Student Balloon
Course (SBC) lectures and activities
• Develop circuit building skills
• Learn about microprocessor
programming
• Understand how to use sensors
• Develop knowledge of project
management techniques
• Understand the ballooning environment,
payload constraints and design
• Exposure to various science topics
appropriate for balloon payloads
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Motivation for the SBC
• There has been little development of
classroom materials to support the
student built aerospace payload
program.
• No materials for an integrated course
– Need to cover diverse topics
– Need to complete in academic year
• Focus on younger undergraduates
– Work with ~2nd year students
• Available “CanSat” electronics needed
improvements
• Provide basis for an advanced program
Launch of the ACES-01 vehicle during May, 2003
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SBC Contents
• A course syllabus
– Provides a summary of the Student Ballooning Course
– Can be modified to fit institution needs
• Lectures
– 33 PowerPoint presentations covering the primary topics relevant to
the program
• Activities
– 30 descriptions of hand-on activities that complement the lectures and
build skills relevant to payload development
• List of materials necessary for the activities
• A hardware kit with the PCBs, microcomputer and other core
components required to support the activities
• Evaluation forms
– Feedback from both students and instructors is important
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The SBC Units
The lectures and activities are divided into five major units
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Electronics – Basic knowledge about circuits, sensor
interfacing & data acquisition
Programming – How to control the BASIC Stamp, read
& store data, interfacing to devices
Project Management – How to plan, manage and track
the progress of a project
Balloon Payload Design – Facts and skills relevant to the
successful development of a payload
Science – Collection of a few presentations on science
topics relevant to balloon payloads
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Spring semester is focused on payload
• Apply skills learned in the fall to develop a small balloon payload
• Proceed through a project life cycle and apply project management techniques
• Written documents & presentation required for Preliminary
Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR) & Flight
Readiness Review (FRR)
Groups fabricating payloads
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Programming the controller
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The National Scientific Balloon Facility
will host the LA ACES launch.
• Launch anticipated for May, 2005
• Must successfully complete FRR prior to flight
• Operations will be similar to the ACES flight in May 03
ACES-01 was assembled and tested in this NSBF hanger
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Students preparing for their FRR
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ACES-01 Launch Day
• Payload string consisted of
several radio beacons
– Location “chirper” at top
– Primary GPS radio next
– Secondary GPS at bottom
• Three student payloads
– TIC, StuMURD, FRED
• A 60” Skyangle parachute
• Radar reflector at bottom
• Total Weight was 11.8
pounds.
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The ACES-01 flight string
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ACES-01 Flight Operations
Joint LSU, SU
StuMURD UV
experiment
successfully
recovered
(above)
Flight line
payload
preparation
(above) and
balloon
inflation
(right)
ACES-01 launch (above)
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ACES-01 Initial Results
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Sounding Balloon Limitations
• Development life cycle needs to be limited to one year to
conform with student schedule
– Feasible with small sounding balloon payloads
– Difficult for satellites where launch schedule is uncertain, but could be
flight tested on a balloon
• Sounding balloons have limited “hang time”
– Total flight time about 2 ½ hours
– Time above 24 km about ½ hour
• Inappropriate for testing student-built
satellites or new technologies
– At most only cursory evaluation of power,
data acquisition & telemetry subsystems
– No test of day-night thermal cycling
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HASP Addresses These Issues
• The High Altitude Student Platform supports advanced studentbuilt payloads
– Regular schedule of launches at least once per year
– Provide high altitude (~36 km) and reasonable duration (~15 to 20 hours)
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Cost effective & adaptable
• Existing flight designs and experience minimize cost of
development and operation
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Hardware / software from flight proven ATIC payload
University based development & support
Use time-tested NSBF balloon vehicle hardware
Capitalize on decades of NSBF experience with flight operations
• Could be easily adapted for LDB (~15 – 30 days) flights
• Could become major part of Aerospace Workforce Development
– Provide student “CubeSats” with flight test time while waiting for launch
– Fly payloads too heavy for sounding balloons
– Space test student concepts for Moon or Mars payloads
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Conclusions
• The President’s Commission on Implementation of United States
Space Exploration Policy suggests that NASA partner with
universities to develop a “virtual” space academy
– “…goals of which are: 1) to provide tangible experiences that prepare
students for a future in a space-related field, and 2) to bridge the divide
between engineering and science training.”
• The existing Space Grant “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” program and
professional scientific ballooning at universities already go a
long way to satisfying the goals of the “virtual” space academy
– Support pipeline from undergrads to graduates and post-docs in both
science and engineering.
– What is needed is to increase support for more science payloads and more
Space Grant ballooning programs at universities across the country.
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