HR: 0830h
AN: ED11B-0114    [PDF]
TI: Access to Space: Hands on flight instrument experience for sophomores at UW
AU: * Holzworth, R H
EM: bobholz@washington.edu
AF: Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington Box 351310, Seattle, WA 98195-1310 United States
AU: Harnett, E M
AF: Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington Box 351310, Seattle, WA 98195-1310 United States
AU: Winglee, R M
AF: Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington Box 351310, Seattle, WA 98195-1310 United States
AU: Chinowsky, T M
AF: Electrical Engineering, University of Washington Box 352500, Seattle, WA 98195-2500 United States
AU: McCarthy, M P
AF: Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington Box 351310, Seattle, WA 98195-1310 United States
AB: Students at the college sophomore level, with no science or technical prerequisites, form teams to design and fabricate sounding balloon payloads. This 200 level class promotes interest in research and involves a mixture of lectures about the upper atmosphere and space environment coupled with an intense laboratory experience. Students are taught rudimentary electronics and fabrication techniques, culminating after just 4 weeks of the flight of a CricketSat instrument (single, thermistor-controlled tone telemetry modulation; kit by Bob Twiggs at Stanford) on a sounding balloon. Following this appetite whetting, student teams design, test, calibrate and interface an instrument of their own choosing to a telemetry system for sounding balloon flight. During Spring 2003 student built payloads included devices to measure direct and reflected solar radiation, magnetic field variations, temperature and pressure, and even a small 'biosphere' with crickets which actually survived flight to near 30km altitude! Students go on a one day field trip to launch the sounding balloons and attempt recovery. This is followed by the last two weeks of data analysis and final report writing.
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting