It's Up, Up And Away For USF Students' Weather Balloon

A group of scary-smart engineering students spent the past months cobbling together a 4-pound assembly of circuit boards, instruments, computers, batteries and barometer they will set loose Saturday in hopes of reaching the thin edge of space 20 miles high.

The University of South Florida students assembled a weather balloon that basically has the same instruments as ones the National Weather Service launches twice a day across the country.

It's a project from the X-Labs, a USF-based group that encourages students to become more involved in science. The group is working with the West Central Florida chapter of the American Meteorological Society.

The balloon launched last year reached 100,000 feet, right where the atmosphere ends and space begins, before it burst as the lowering air pressure let the balloon expand.

The students used some off-the-shelf circuitry and some they made themselves; the project is an exercise in designing something to carry a payload into the atmosphere and expanded on what they learned from earlier versions.

Electrical engineering graduate Joe Register was involved in the two previous launches, though his third will be his last at USF.

Register, former president of the lab group, said one lesson learned was the need to duplicate many of the instruments in the balloon payload this year.

The balloon will carry instruments that measure air pressure, temperature and humidity. A GPS device will allow the students to track wind speed and altitude.There will be four computers packed into the payload, which also includes a camera and transmitters.

The balloon, which when folded fits in a box that wouldn't hold a pair of shoes, will be filled with helium and expand to about 5 feet in diameter as it climbs.

Last year's payload package was basically a modified cooler, necessary to keep instruments from freezing when the balloon reaches higher altitudes.

Temperature drops about 3.5 degrees for every 1,000 feet, said Jennifer Collins, a USF assistant professor of geography who teaches meteorology courses and is helping with the project.

The students will chase the balloon as it goes up and then zips away as it gets snatched by the jet stream. Winds at extreme altitudes can reach 100 mph, Register said.

Chasing the balloon becomes a race between how fast the balloon rises before bursting and how far the wind carries it. For most weather service balloons launched in Florida, that race ends over the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean.

"The trick is to get it up and get it down as quick as possible," Register said.

Last year's balloon drifted about three miles off the east coast near Melbourne before plunking into the drink.

The package drifted about 13 miles south before washing ashore where the mother of a USF student found it and called the number on the outside. The students were able to retrieve the payload.

Some modifications of this year's payload include shaping the container differently so the antenna remain upright when it falls into the water, said Wayne Melton, a senior and president of X-Labs.

With a wet landing in mind, the container also is waterproof this year.

The launch, which is open to the public, will take place near the university's chemistry building. From the main Fowler Avenue entrance to USF, go north to the end of the road. Parking is on the left.