Student Ballooning for Aerospace Workforce Development

1. Student Ballooning for Aerospace Workforce Development T.G. Guzik and J.P. Wefel Louisiana State University Lessons Learned Workshop August 9, 2004 Student Ballooning

2. Two Extremes • The Aerospace engineer / scientist • Expert in practical skills • Familiar with team work • Write numerous proposals, reports, documents • Daily management of people, money and time • The entering undergraduate student • Few practical skills • No “Heathkits”, or High School auto or wood shops • Many have problems with writing and presentations • Grammar, spelling, organization, argument presentation • Somewhat computer “literate” (web capable) • Little programming, CAD or data analysis experience Student Ballooning

3. How do we go from one to the other? • Need to provide “hands-on” practical experience • Need to integrate classroom “theory” with real applications • Need to improve communication skills • Need knowledge about and experience with, team work and management • Some Engineering Departments address such issues • “Capstone” or Design courses in last year • Most Science Departments have no organized method for handling this situation • Students pickup whatever they can along the way Student Ballooning

4. Space Grant has developed a national effort • Many higher education institutions across U.S. are engaging students in design, construction and operation of aerospace payloads • Small payloads launched on sounding balloons • Compact Earth-orbiting satellites (e.g. CubeSat) • Space Grant effort is referred to as “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” • Represents staged approach of moving from simple sounding balloon payloads, to LEO CubeSats, to, eventually, student built payloads on Mars. • Currently ~30 states are engaging students in some variant of this program • Website at http://ssp.arizona.edu/sgsatellites/programs.shtml • The Louisiana program, Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for Students (ACES), began in 2002 Student Ballooning

5. ACES in Louisiana • Goals included the following • Attract new students to aerospace related programs • Provide background on how to develop programs • Practical experience with sensors, electronics & systems • Retain students in science by exciting their imagination • Implemented pilot version with NASA funding during 2002-2003 academic year • Test bed program concepts • Use LSU expertise in scientific ballooning • Build upon “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” program Student Ballooning

6. The ACES Basic Concept • Use a latex sounding balloon as the vehicle • Up to 12 lbs payload without FAA waiver • Altitude up to ~100,000 feet • Trained students to use knowledge about the project life cycle and project management • Students were exposed to skills not normally available in conventional classrooms. Student Ballooning

7. ACES Structure • Involved students from LSU and SU • About 15 students organized in teams of 3-4 • Students committed to 4 hours / week (took attendance) • Paid student wage for up to 10 hours / week • Weekly contact Tuesday & Thursday evening • One or two 1 hr lectures and 3+ hrs of activities • Talks on electronics, programming, payload design, project management & life cycle, technical aspects of high powered model rocket, radio telemetry & communication • Activities include CricketSat, CanSat and BalloonSat • Launch trip to NSBF (May 2003) resulted in the successful flight of three student built payloads Student Ballooning

8. ACES Evolved into LA ACES • The “lessons learned” from the pilot ACES program are incorporated into the current LA ACES program • Involve student teams from institutions across Louisiana • Formalize the training aspect of the program with a series of lectures and hands-on activities (Student Ballooning Course) • Balloon support activities centered at LSU-BR • NASA approved LA ACES funding 2/2004 • Student Ballooning Course developed during Spring & Summer 2004 • Instructor training workshop held during May, 2004 • Begin activities at UNO, LaTech, ULL, SU-BR & LSU-BR by fall semester 2004 Student Ballooning

9. Fall semester builds basic skills • Proceed through the Student Balloon Course (SBC) lectures and activities • Develop circuit building skills • Learn about microprocessor programming • Understand how to use sensors • Develop knowledge of project management techniques • Understand the ballooning environment, payload constraints and design • Exposure to various science topics appropriate for balloon payloads Student Ballooning

10. Motivation for the SBC • There has been little development of classroom materials to support the student built aerospace payload program. • No materials for an integrated course • Need to cover diverse topics • Need to complete in academic year • Focus on younger undergraduates • Work with ~2nd year students • Available “CanSat” electronics needed improvements • Provide basis for an advanced program Launch of the ACES-01 vehicle during May, 2003 Student Ballooning

11. SBC Contents • A course syllabus • Provides a summary of the Student Ballooning Course • Can be modified to fit institution needs • Lectures • 33 PowerPoint presentations covering the primary topics relevant to the program • Activities • 30 descriptions of hand-on activities that complement the lectures and build skills relevant to payload development • List of materials necessary for the activities • A hardware kit with the PCBs, microcomputer and other core components required to support the activities • Evaluation forms • Feedback from both students and instructors is important Student Ballooning

12. The SBC Units The lectures and activities are divided into five major units • Electronics – Basic knowledge about circuits, sensor interfacing & data acquisition • Programming – How to control the BASIC Stamp, read & store data, interfacing to devices • Project Management – How to plan, manage and track the progress of a project • Balloon Payload Design – Facts and skills relevant to the successful development of a payload • Science – Collection of a few presentations on science topics relevant to balloon payloads Student Ballooning

13. Spring semester is focused on payload • Apply skills learned in the fall to develop a small balloon payload • Proceed through a project life cycle and apply project manage-ment techniques • Written documents & presentation required for Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR) & Flight Readiness Review (FRR) Groups fabricating payloads Programming the controller Student Ballooning

14. The National Scientific Balloon Facility will host the LA ACES launch. • Launch anticipated for May, 2005 • Must successfully complete FRR prior to flight • Operations will be similar to the ACES flight in May 03 Students preparing for their FRR ACES-01 was assembled and tested in this NSBF hanger Student Ballooning

15. ACES-01 Launch Day • Payload string consisted of several radio beacons • Location “chirper” at top • Primary GPS radio next • Secondary GPS at bottom • Three student payloads • TIC, StuMURD, FRED • A 60” Skyangle parachute • Radar reflector at bottom • Total Weight was 11.8 pounds. The ACES-01 flight string Student Ballooning

16. ACES-01 Flight Operations Joint LSU, SU StuMURD UV experiment successfully recovered (above) Flight line payload preparation (above) and balloon inflation (right) ACES-01 launch (above) Student Ballooning

17. ACES-01 Initial Results Student Ballooning

18. Sounding Balloon Limitations • Development life cycle needs to be limited to one year to conform with student schedule • Feasible with small sounding balloon payloads • Difficult for satellites where launch schedule is uncertain, but could be flight tested on a balloon • Sounding balloons have limited “hang time” • Total flight time about 2 ½ hours • Time above 24 km about ½ hour • Inappropriate for testing student-built satellites or new technologies • At most only cursory evaluation of power, data acquisition & telemetry subsystems • No test of day-night thermal cycling Student Ballooning

19. HASP Addresses These Issues • The High Altitude Student Platform supports advanced student-built payloads • Regular schedule of launches at least once per year • Provide high altitude (~36 km) and reasonable duration (~15 to 20 hours) Student Ballooning

20. Cost effective & adaptable • Existing flight designs and experience minimize cost of development and operation • Hardware / software from flight proven ATIC payload • University based development & support • Use time-tested NSBF balloon vehicle hardware • Capitalize on decades of NSBF experience with flight operations • Could be easily adapted for LDB (~15 – 30 days) flights • Could become major part of Aerospace Workforce Development • Provide student “CubeSats” with flight test time while waiting for launch • Fly payloads too heavy for sounding balloons • Space test student concepts for Moon or Mars payloads Student Ballooning

21. Conclusions • The President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy suggests that NASA partner with universities to develop a “virtual” space academy • “…goals of which are: 1) to provide tangible experiences that prepare students for a future in a space-related field, and 2) to bridge the divide between engineering and science training.” • The existing Space Grant “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” program and professional scientific ballooning at universities already go a long way to satisfying the goals of the “virtual” space academy • Support pipeline from undergrads to graduates and post-docs in both science and engineering. • What is needed is to increase support for more science payloads and more Space Grant ballooning programs at universities across the country. Student Ballooning