Louisiana Workforce Development
• For a Phase 2 state, the Workforce Supplement provided an
opportunity to start something new.
• Based upon the good experience of several in Colorado for
the “Getting Started” workshop
• Based as well upon the LSU group’s expertise in large
scale scientific ballooning
• LA opted to start a Student Ballooning Project:
Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for Students
LA ACES
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LA ACES Overview
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Overview of the LA ACES Program
A summary of the motivation, components and
expectations of this Louisiana-wide student
ballooning program
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Two Extremes
• The Aerospace engineer / scientist
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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, organization, and project 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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LA ACES Overview
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The ACES Pilot Project (2002-2003)
• 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 LaSPACE Workforce
funding during 2002-2003 academic year
– Test bed program concepts
– Use LSU expertise in scientific ballooning
– Build upon “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” program
• http://ssp.arizona.edu/sgsatellites/programs.shtml
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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
• Guide students to “think the problem
through”.
• 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 state
– 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 Workforce funding mid-2004
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Develop Student Ballooning Course (Spring & Summer 2004)
Re-design Cricketsat ===>>> SkeeterSat
Re-engineer Cansat board ===>>> BalloonSat board
Involve Technical staff in Physics at LSU
• Make available to other University groups in the state
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LaACES History and Status
• Activities at UNO, LaTech, ULL, SUBR & LSU-BR began
fall 2004 & payloads were launched May 2005
• Began 2005-06 session with LSU, SUBR, LaTech, UNO &
McNeese
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Hurricanes hit
UNO team dispersed and SUBR unable to continue
McNeese continued in ‘borrowed’ quarters
Had successful ‘double’ launch in May 2006
• Current 2006-07 program involves LSU, SUBR, McNeese,
UNO and LaTECH – launch projected for May, 2007
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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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This Year a “New Wrinkle” is added
• Plan to do a Tethered Balloon “Flight” just after
Christmas Break.
– Each student ‘flies’ a simple sensor interfaced to
BalloonSat board
– Provides an intermediate goal for the students
– Puts new skills into practice and demonstrates the factors
needed to be successful in real flight
– Provides practice on documentation writing and
presentation
– Demonstrates GPS flight systems used in tracking
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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
LA ACES Overview
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The Project Phases
• All projects complete roughly the same phases from inception to
completion
DESIGN
PDR
DEVELOPMENT
CDR
FABRICATION
INTEGRATION
OPERATION
FRR
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TESTING
LA ACES Overview
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The National Scientific Balloon Facility
hosts the LaACES launches.
• May 03,05,06: Next launch planned for May, 2007
• Must successfully complete FRR prior to flight
• Operations improve each year from ACES in May 03
ACES-01 was assembled and tested in this NSBF hanger
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LA ACES Overview
Students preparing for their FRR
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ACES-01 Launch Preparation
• Payloads in final configuration and checkout all
flight systems.
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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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Payloads were set for flight
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The Balloon was inflated
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And we had launch!
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Then the Chase began
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An easy recovery --- this time
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Initial results followed the flight
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Conclusions
• LaACES builds upon the previous ACES experience
• The new Student Ballooning Course provides a formal
structure that will enhance the skill learning process
• During payload development the student teams follow
a typical project life-cycle and need to pass three
reviews
• Flight operations will take place at NSBF in Palestine,
TX during May each year
• Communication and feedback is important
– Evaluation forms are included in the SBC
– Not much use of the LaACES Yahoo discussion group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/la-aces/
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Many Thanks ……
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NASA for Workforce Development Support
J. Giammanco, Instructor in Dept. of Physics and Ham radio operator for GPS and
Radio systems and for getting the amateur radio clubs out to help with chase and
recovery
B. Ellison, Head of Electronics Development Group in Physics for board re-works,
Ham radio support, de-bugging the ‘mess ups’ and student support
T. G. Guzik, Research Professor, for managing the overall program, providing the
interfaces, shepherding the development of the SBC and critiquing the PDR, CDR,
and FRR reports and leading the flight expedition
Many Amateur Radio enthusiasts who have come out to help
J. G. Stacy of SUBR for his support and help through the Pilot and into LaACES
The ‘Leads’ for the programs at the other institutions in LA for being willing to ‘take
a chance’ as well as providing the evaluation and feed-back needed to evolve the
program
The staff at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility for their hospitality, help and
forbearance.
The LaACES students, most still in school, but some in a variety of jobs.
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