High Altitude Balloon Group: Trip to Rose Bud, South Dakota
by Blaise Mibeck
Abstract
The Space Studies
Department's High Altitude Balloon Group
(HABG) with support from the Upper Midwest
Aerospace Consortium (UMAC) and
Sinte
Gleska University (SGU) visited the Rose Bud Reservation on May 22 through
24, 2000. Balloon demonstrations were
conducted at two high schools and Sinte Gleska University along with talks
regarding free (un-tethered) balloon construction, launch and recovery. The
demonstrations were met with great enthusiasm despite difficult weather.
This trip served as an exchange of
knowledge, the intensity of which would have been impossible in a conference
atmosphere. Visiting with the students
and faculty of Sinte Gleska University was especially useful for understanding
the concerns, goals and aspirations of UMAC's newest member.
High School Demonstrations
HABG members who participated in this trip were: John
Graham, John Nordlie, Blaise Mibeck, Patricia Langwost, Chris Milford and Dean
Smith.[1]
Each member of the group brought a
particular expertise to the discussions that followed the demonstrations so
that all questions concerning our activities could be answered.
Talks and demonstrations were given to
students at Saint Francis Indian School and Todd County High School.
The purpose and organization of the group were presented
by Professor John Graham followed a short talk by each group member on specific
aspects of scientific ballooning, including lessons learned and future
plans. John Nordlie discussed the
components of a typical free flying balloon train, gondola construction and FAA
regulations. Blaise Mibeck presented
scientific research possible from high altitude balloons and reviewed some of
the work done over the last year.
Patricia Langwost contributed information on Basic Stamp based
experiments and described how her temperature logging experiment worked.
Chris Milford demonstrated amateur radio
communications, GPS and packet radio.
Dean Smith and Chris Milford described balloon chasing.
Figure 1: John Nordlie showing Saint Francis Indian
School students the various equipment used in balloon missions.
After the talks, students were invited outside to watch a
tethered balloon demonstration. A small
package carrying cameras, servos and micro-controller was tied to a helium
filled 350 gram balloon tethered to a reel and flown to 400-600 feet to take
aerial photographs of the school. After
the demonstration the balloon was reeled down, the package detached and a
plastic bag containing messages from the students and return address were tied
to the balloon. Students were asked to
name the balloon flight and after the traditional count down the balloon was
released by volunteer students and carried their messages to whoever might find
them.
Figure 2: John Graham with students at Todd County High School before launching the
"Falcon".
There were several instances during this trip when facets
of HABG work had significant importance to seemingly unrelated activities being
done at the Rose Bud Reservation.
Teacher John Johnson of Saint Francis Indian School is interested in
tracking elk. We discussed with Mr.
Johnson the details behind the APRS/GPS system used for HABG balloon tracking.
Sinte Gleska University Demonstration
After demonstrating the tethered balloon experiment and
launching one last balloon letter from Rose Bud Reservation, the HABG had an
opportunity to meet with SGU Vice President Leland Bordeaux and other
faculty. The HABG role of providing a
test bed for UMAC's CERES satellite project was discussed along with
opportunities that scientific ballooning offers to an environmental science
program like SGU's.
Vice President Bordeaux's concentration on our individual
talks and his enthusiasm for the HABG project were gratifying.
Questions generally dealt with the uses of
this technology for earth system science and environmental monitoring.
Though visiting SGU took place on the last day, HABG
members had the pleasure of working with, our hosts, SGU students Ione Quigley
and Chris Barrett and Sicangu Policy Institute faculty James Rattling Leaf and
Randy Emery at the high school demonstrations and talks.
Our hosts were observant, spirited and
generously helped with our balloon demonstrations and have been made honorary
members of the UND HABG.
Figure 3: Two aerial photographs taken 600 feet over Sinte Gleska University.
Knowledge Transfer to Sinte Gleska University
Because weather and terrain at Rose Bud Reservation
present problems for chasing free flying balloons the HABG suggested that SGU
work with tethered balloons to develop building and flying techniques on the
way towards free flight missions. Our
experience working with amateur radio operators (hams) outside the UND
community was also stressed. In order
to provide SGU with this support, hams living in South Dakota have been
contacted by Chris Milford to help UND HABG with future balloon missions.
When SGU begins planning their free flying
balloon missions SD hams will be introduced to the SGU group by the UND
HABG.
The construction of micro-controllers using Basic Stamp
technology, and amateur radio
communication may have been the most important knowledge transfer HABG
brought to SGU.
To understand why these specific aspects of the HABG were
important to our hosts requires an understanding of the environment were SGU
exists.
Rose Bud Indian Reservation is the third largest
reservation in the United States. A
major concern is the lack of Doppler radar coverage over the reservation from
surrounding National Weather Service stations.
One case was mentioned of a tornado that destroyed homes and lives
several years ago. There was no warning
or knowledge of the event by the National Weather Service. Acquiring the
ability to monitor weather on the reservation is of great interest to SGU.
HABG member John Nordlie described using
Internet databases of GOES imagery as a first step towards a future ground
receiving station for weather satellite data or a Doppler radar system operated
by the SGU Environmental Science program.
Another suggestion for SGU was to build and maintain a
system of small solar powered weather stations based on the same
micro-controller technology used in HABG balloon experiments.
Using Basic Stamp technology instead of
commercial remote weather stations would be lower cost and provide advanced
high school and university students with experience in basic electronics and
environmental science. Literature
exists on home-built weather stations and Parallax Inc. has tremendous
technical and application support for logging data with or networking stamp
micro-controllers for earth observation.
We found that SGU was interested in starting a college
radio station as well as an amateur radio club.
One professional FM radio station exists on the reservation but
does not fully serve the reservations needs.
These needs include severe weather, public and cultural awareness.
HABG member Chris Milford suggested an SGU amateur radio
club which would have several benefits.
Amateur radio operators (hams) in the US serve the public good by
teaching the operational and technical aspects of radio communication.
This means any hams in South Dakota could
assist SGU students starting out in amateur radio.
Using amateur radio techniques and training from the National
Weather Service (an existing program called Sky Warn) would also help a
reservation weather and environmental monitoring
system.
We had the opportunity to help SGU with the installation
of the Direct PC system purchased by UMAC.
John Nordlie led the SGU group through the critical procedure of
pointing the Direct PC dish towards the correct satellite and verifying this
link. John Nordlie's presence and
experience with this problem was invaluable.
Knowledge transfer from Sinte Gleska University
Knowledge transfer
during our stay at the Rose Bud Reservation was buy no means
unidirectional. Along with exposure to
the culture of the reservation we were greatly impressed with the facilities
being developed at SGU and conversations with students and faculty have already
led to the development of techniques that will improve HABG operations.
While describing our various activities, including plans
for flights launched from central and far west North Dakota, Randy Emery
suggested using a tethered balloon for a radio repeater to facilitate
communications between the Space Studies Mission Control and the Launch
Operations teams. Chris Milford is
currently developing a block diagram based on this idea and we expect this
evolve into an important method for launching balloons past the line of site
range of radio communication between UND and the launch site.
Figre 4: Chris Milford's communication block diagram
based on conversation with Randy Emery of SGU.
The physical plant of SGU is rapidly changing.
James Rattling Leaf gave our group a tour of
the New Technology Center. SGU is
acutely aware that distance technology is critical to the latest paradigm in
education. Their computer intensive
classrooms rivaled or surpassed similar facilities at UND and each included a
variety of telecommunications equipment such as digital dry erase boards, over
head cameras for broadcasting handwritten notes and video conferencing
hardware. SGU is working towards a
capability of transmitting classes to other schools.
The tour included a part of the technology center that
over looked recently planted fields, a river, and distant hills.
James Rattling Leaf explained that in the
near future, remote sensing imagery will be used to monitor the agricultural
activity in these fields (part of a SGU/UMAC project).
Understanding the importance of ground truth
measurements already presents SGU as a serious player in remote sensing
research. When satellite imagery pours
into this highly capable facility the work performed there will definitely be
important.
Conclusion
Our visit to the Rose Bud Reservation
was a unique and worthwhile experience.
We enjoyed teaching scientific ballooning to
the high schools and working with members of Sinte Gleska University.
Although discussions seemed to digress from
scientific ballooning and the CERES Project to the seemingly unrelated topics,
one aspect of this trip was constant.
The mutual exchange of ideas and information, important to a respectful
and fulfilling relationship between our two schools, may not have been our goal
for this trip but was, non the less, an ideal outcome.
We now have friends at Sinte Gleska University and look
forward to future meetings with them.
We have no doubt that they will succeed at everything they set out to do
and hope to assist them in any way we can.
A Basic
Stamp micro-controller (produced by
Parallax Inc.) is a programmable computer
on a chip.
John Graham:
Professor, Space Studies;
John Nordlie: RWIC employee,
Space Studies Graduate
Alumni;
Blaise Mibeck: Space Studies graduate student, M.S. in
Physics UND;
Patricia Langwost: Electrical Engineering
undergraduate, Space Studies minor;
Chris Milford:
Physics and Education
undergraduate, Space Studies minor,
Forx Amateur Radio
Club;
Dean Smith: M.S. in Physics
UND.