DREAMS 19-20:
Radiation/Light/Vernier Sensors
Godwin Chan
Radiation:
Question: How does radiation level change as
altitude increases? And if there is a change is it
linear or exponential?
Hypothesis: Radiation will increase exponentially
in respect to increasing altitude.
Instrumentation / Calibration
 Geiger Counter
 Programming to make Arduino read and print out
voltage
 Calibrating with known Radioactive objects (such as
Uranium)
Flight Setup / Follow-up Analysis
 Geiger Counter setup outside of the box
 Compare Counts Per Minute (CPM) against altitude
Light Intensity
 Question: How does light intensity of different spectrums
(UV, Visible, Infrared) change with altitude? And if there is a
change is there a difference in patterns between different
spectrums?
 Hypothesis: Different spectrums will have different effects
with increasing altitude. For UV, the intensity should
dramatically (maybe exponentially) increase with altitude.
Visible Light will increase with altitude but not as
dramatically as UV. And finally infrared light may increase
slightly but the least out of all spectrums.
Planck Curve of the Sun
Instrumentation / Calibration
 OPT301 Light Sensor
 Writing Arduino program to read and record voltage to
SD card in Excel
 Building custom breadboard circuit to calibrate sensor
 Rework circuit to include Resistor and Capacitor
Flight Setup / Analysis
 Setup three OPT301 with UV filter, Infrared filter, and no
filter
 Setup circuit board outside the box
 Compared light intensity vs. altitude
CO2 / O2/ Relative Humidity
 Question: How does levels of CO2, O2, and Relative
Humidity change with altitude? And if there are
changes, is there any correlation between the three
variables of measures?
 Hypothesis: CO2, O2, and Relative Humidity will all
decrease with altitude, and CO2 and O2 should both
have correlation with Relative Humidity at all altitudes.
Instrumentation / Calibration
 Vernier CO2 / O2/ RH sensors
 Write program with unique linear calibration for
converting voltage to understood units
 Store values recorded onto SD card with time
Flight Setup / Analysis
O2 and RH sensors placed on the side with head
cross-area stuck out
CO2 sensor with special attachment
Compared CO2 / O2 / RH readings with altitude
and with each other.