When my daughter first started talking about her upcoming science fair, I didn't think it would go in this direction. This would be her first real science fair and her first fair at a new school. She brainstormed for ideas and, with mom a planetary geologist and dad an atmospheric physicist, she was not at a loss for them. She really latched onto the idea of measuring the atmospheric temperature and pressure profile with a balloon though.
I hope this blog will be a fun place to share the development process and record her work on it. We will use amateur radio for tracking and telemetry so this will also be the place for posting transmitter and telemetry decode information.
The idea is simple: launch a balloon into the stratosphere carrying temperature sensors, a pressure sensor and camera. An Arduino microcontroller will run command and data handling (C&DH) for data collection and storage. GPS coupled with amateur radio will provide position and data dowlink. In the event that we can not recover the balloon, the hope is to have the downlinked data for a backup. We will publish our downlink info and try to give warning about launch times. Radio amateurs along the flight track (likely Cumberland, MD to points east) are welcome to listen in.
When you have two scientists for parents, be careful when you say 'I wonder if I could...'.
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