Scientific balloons
Bryan Figger, Jon Folkerts, Brent Risting
Dr. Paul Adams, Dr. Jack Maseberg
Things that fly…
• Nature: Birds, bats, and insects
The Fall of Icarus
Pieter Pauwel Rubens, 1636
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
http://martinjetpack.com
Daedalus, MIT, 1988 (70 miles, 4 hours)
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Fireworks (~600 A.D.)
– Rockets (~1200 A.D.)
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Airplanes / Jets
– Helicopters
Jacques and Louis Breguet,
Gyroplane No. 1, 1907
First flight at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina on
December 17, 1903
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Sky lanterns (~300 B.C.), partial demonstration…575K
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Hot air balloons (~1783)
Early balloon designs (1818)
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Hot air balloons (~1783)
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Hydrogen / Helium balloons
Things that fly…
• Human innovations:
– Hydrogen / Helium airships (blimps, zeppelins)
Things that fly…
• Human innovations: (Hindenburg, 1937)
– Hydrogen vs. Helium.
http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/interiors
Things that fly…
• Human innovations: (Hindenburg, 1937)
– Hydrogen vs. Helium, safety first!
Why do balloons fly?
Archimedes of Syracuse
(212 B.C.)
Buoyancy = weight of displaced fluid
Isaac Newton
(1687)
Buoyancy
Conditions for buoyancy:
1)
2)
3)
A fluid must be present (air)
An object must be free to move in the fluid (balloon)
The object and fluid must be subject to a force (gravity)
A. L. Lehman et. al., Am. J. Phys. 56, 1046 (1988).
Why do balloons fly?
Why do balloons fly?
Why do balloons fly?
Why do balloons fly?
Free body diagram
Free body diagram
Ascent rate: 980 ft/min
Descent rate: 3500 ft/min
32 °F to -80 °F
NASA atmospheric data
Altitude
Mount Everest
Commercial Jet
Our balloon
ISS
Radius of Earth
Moon
5.5 miles
6.5 miles
16.6 miles
230 miles
3963 miles
230,000 miles
Distance to Horizon
h
d
R
R
Balloon Motion
• Trajectory predictions:
http://habhub.org/predict/
Balloon Records
• 1st US transcontinental (& 1st transatlantic) amateur radio
HAB (Dec 11, 2011)
California > Mediterranean Sea, 6,236 miles in 57 hours
Near Space Project flight number CNSP-11
(call sign K6RPT-11, www.aprs.fi)
Hays, KS
It’s a bird. It’s a …
Videos:
www.fhsu.edu/physics
Future Goals
•
•
•
•
Cosmic rays
Video streaming in real time
Collect bacteria at high altitude
Payload stabilization with gyroscopes/CO2
cartridges
• Panoramic images, fish eye lens, etc.
Future Goals
• Special thanks to
– Paul Verhage
– Naomi Kitzis and Lianne Zwenger
Dr. Timothy Rolls