Balloon Payload Project

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Elijah High-Altitude Balloon Payload Internship

Technical Skills Used

  • Arduino
  • Soldering
  • 3D Printing
  • Foam Cutting
  • Electrical Design
  • Hardware Programming

Hardware & Layout

There were 2 payloads. The main one holding 3 experiments, and the other one holding 1 experiment.

  • Arduino Mega 2560
  • Arduino Nano
  • Weather Shield (Humidity, Temperature,Pressure)
  • IMU (Velocity,Acceleration,Rotation)
  • Servo Motor
  • Solar Cells
  • Go Pro
  • Canon Camera with CHDK
  • 9V Batteries
  • Other ICs and electrical components


How it Works

Experiments

  • Solar Cell Efficiency with Altitude
  • Measuring Atmosphereic Electric Fields
  • Characterizing Payload Spin using Solar Cells
  • Determining the Breakdown Voltage of Air with Altitude
  • Capturing pictures with IR filter to gauge crop healthiness

In addition to the experiments, another area of focus was the payload structure itself. One cool feature is the hula-hoop stabilization ring that increases the moment of inertia of the capsule and therefore helps reduce the amount of rotation the payload would experience during flight.

Published Paper

Please see my team's published report to read more about each experiment and their results.

Demo Video

Check out the video below to see our team's balloon pop near 100,000 ft!