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Tester hosts high-altitude balloon launch
Senator Jon Tester prevents the weather balloon from hitting the ground Friday morning prior to it's launch on his farm west of Big Sandy.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester prevents a weather balloon from hitting the ground Friday morning prior to it's launch at his farm west of Big Sandy.
Big Sandy High School Junior Erica White prevents a weather balloon from hitting the ground Friday morning prior to it's launch at U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's farm west of Big Sandy.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester watches the weather balloon launch Friday morning from his farm west of Big Sandy.
On Sen. Jon Tester's farm outside Big Sandy Friday, university students and professionals prepared to launch a high-altitude balloon as part of the Borealis Project.
The balloon, after launching, sent back data to computers set up at the farm. Cameras set up in the apparatus sent back images and video of the flight.
"It's actually a pretty amazing feat," said Angela Des Jardins, director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium.
The event at the farm cost the group a total of $2,500, which is a small budget compared to similar projects. Des Jardins said this send-off is in preparation for a nationwide project that will record and gather information about the total solar eclipse that will occur Aug. 21, 2017.
The equipment sent up on the balloon measured things like gravity waves and meteorological information in the atmosphere.
The balloon, successfully released on the second attempt, reached an altitude of 87,618 feet and landed near the end of Wolery Sign Road off Highway 448. The balloon was controlled by a valve that would release helium in order to stop it from rising and inevitably pop when it gets too high in the atmosphere, or manually popped by the crew on the ground, who had the option of sending an email to the equipment, telling a dart attached to the apparatus to pop the balloon.
Before sending the balloon up, students from Montana State Univesity and University of Montana, along with volunteers, had to make sure that when the balloon was being inflated it did not touch the ground. Des Jardins said the balloon was very fragile and would be damaged by the blades of grass.
To measure where the balloon would land once it was launched, weather information was plugged into a mathematical calculation that would more or less tell the crew where the balloon was destined to land.
"It's educational in nature," Tester said of the project, adding that he hopes projects like these will peak someone's interest in this field.
Tester said he met up with the Space Consortium in his travels to campuses in Montana.
"They're always talking about the work they're doing with space," Tester said.
The launch Friday was successful and Des Jardins said footage from the GoPro camera attached to the payload sent up with the balloon should be available sometime soon on the Montana Space Consortium website.
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