Well this past week has been pretty eventful for CAPE, with two major events. The first of which was Nick and I presenting the Sputnik Lite slideshow to a group of teachers attending a conference on Education on UL Campus, and launching a version of Sputnik Lite, which I call PartySat I, given that we’re using party balloon. Below are some pictures from the presentation and launch.

Nick Presenting the Sputnik Lite Project

A Volunteer Teacher pointing the Antennae in the direction of where we’re releasing PartySat.

and there she goes into the skies….

We’re not entirely certain just yet what happened to PartySat, but if you happen across a small transceiver attached to remains of four party sized balloons, please contact us.  Data from the launch will be up in a few days.

In other news, last night Matthew Triche, Dustin Muse, Blake Deville and I went to the Red Cross Center in Scott, and took our Technician’s Ham Operator Exam, and we all passed.  So just a quick congratulations to everyone!

Sputnik Lite: Teaching Science With Balloons

In addition to building satellites, Nick and students from CAPE are actively seeking future satellite builders and engineers even in elementary schools.  One method of reaching these students and getting them involved in science is through the Sputnik Lite balloon launch.  A small radio transmitter is attached to a helium filled party balloons and released.  The transmitter then sends down pulses of RF to relay temperature information to a groundstation.  Students then decode the temperature information to observe the changes in temperature over altitude.

Temperature vs. Altitude of a Balloon

Nick’s presentation and spreadsheet are available here:

• balloon-sputnik-light-09-06-02.pptx
  
• balloon-09-06-03-0623.xls