WSU Weather Balloon Will Take Flight April 19
OGDEN, Utah – Weber State University’s High Altitude Reconnaissance Balloon for Outreach and Research (HARBOR) launch set to take flight April 19 from Duchesne Municipal Airport, has been canceled due to inclement weather. The team was set to leave WSU at 6 a.m. to arrive at the airport about 8:30 a.m. and launch a two-hour flight.HARBOR employs a latex, helium-filled atmospheric weather balloon that travels to the edge of outer space — the highest flight reached 110,718 feet above sea level — gathering scientific measurements from Earth’s atmosphere along the way. Balloon systems are valuable tools for understanding Earth’s climate and weather systems at altitudes not attainable by aircraft (which fly too low) and spacecraft (which orbit too high). They also promote space-based learning for future scientists, physicists and engineers.
The April 19 flight coincides with the Global Space Balloon Challenge, an initiative to encourage people to build their own space hardware and to promote the spirit of international STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)
collaboration. Over a single weekend, teams across the world will launch balloons, recover them and share the photos and data they have collected.HARBOR carries with it a multi-sensor array (MSA), a device that measures air pressure, temperature, acceleration, the strength of magnetic fields, ozone concentration, and more. The MSA on this flight has been updated to allow for increased flexibility and data-collecting power, with the goal of providing improved measurements of Earth’s atmosphere and better understanding of metropolitan inversions. With the newly upgraded MSA, one of HARBOR’s next goals is to create the sensor to measure pollutants such as gases and aerosols. All of the hardware is designed or altered for flight by a team of WSU physics, electronics engineering and electronics engineering technology students.
John Sohl, HARBOR program director and WSU physics professor, explains that HARBOR is a goal-oriented, mission-based program styled after NASA flights. Students must work in teams, with budget, time, mass and power limits. “It is a very ‘real-world’ experience for future scientists and engineers,” he said. “Industry employers generally prefer graduates who have hands-on experience, especially in a teamwork-style project.”
WSU electronics engineering major Michael Petersen is an aerospace enthusiast who has been involved in the HARBOR program for three years. He and two other electronics engineering students spent more than 1,000 hours updating the MSA as part of an undergraduate research project. For Petersen, HARBOR presented numerous learning opportunities, and even opened the door to an internship at a leading technology company.
“We had to learn to build our own circuit boards, write our own computer programs, design our own circuits, apply for grants and manage a project,” said Petersen. “For me, this has been the most productive academic activity I’ve ever been involved in — it has been a truly amazing experience.”
A final weather confirmation will be made April 18 before 9 at p.m. and will be announced on the harbor website: harbor.weber.edu. Those interested can follow the flight live at planet.weber.edu/harbor/FlightStatus.htm.
Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
- Amy Hendricks, University Communications
801-626-6346 • ahess@weber.edu - Contact:
- John Sohl, HARBOR program director and WSU physics professor
801-626-7907 • jsohl@weber.edu
Michael Petersen, electronics engineering student
801-626-7017 • michaelpetersen1@mail.weber.edu