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Fire in the Sky 2006 Events
- Night launch
- One-day EX launch at alternate location
- Astronomy/Stargazing
- 100K' Balloon satellites
Astronomy/Stargazing
The Tacoma Astronomy Society and the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory will hold classes and have telescopes available for solar & star-gazing.
Fire in the Sky 2006 Near Space Program
In an effort to acquaint the public with the excitement of science, mathematics, and engineering, L. Paul Verhage will lead a near space activity at FITS 2006. Participants, working in teams, will design and test their own functioning model of a satellite, called a BalloonSat. After confirming the soundness of their design, teams will help launch their BalloonSat to an altitude of around 100,000 feet. During the mission of their satellite, members of each team will have the option of either monitoring the flight in Mission Control or participating in the chase and recovery of BalloonSats.
After BalloonSat recovery, teams will download and analyze the data collected by their BalloonSats. The data collected can include, air temperature, pressure, light intensity, and imaging. In addition to their data, each team will also get a record of GPS data collected during the mission.
Methods of construction, programming avionics, and analyzing data will be explained. Teams will be able to keep their BalloonSat airframe, but due to costs involved, teams must return the BalloonSat's avionics.
