[South Florida DX Association] ARLS003 Middle School Students to Launch Near-Space Balloon

[Bill]

ZCZC AS03
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 003  ARLS003
 From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  March 9, 2011
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS003
ARLS003 Middle School Students to Launch Near-Space Balloon

A group of students from Olde Towne Middle School (OTMS) in Ridgeland, 
Mississippi is preparing for a trip to space -- or as close as they can 
get. The OTMS Radio and Technology Club, along
with the school's Science Team, are planning a near-space balloon launch 
at 9 AM (CDT) on March 26 (the date and time are subject to change 
depending on weather). The balloon -- nicknamed Titans in Space -- will 
use the call sign KC5NXD and is expected to reach an altitude of 94,825 
feet.

The project is led by Bill Richardson, N5VEI, a past participant in the 
ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology, a professional 
development program that is part of ARRL's donor-funded Education & 
Technology Program. The school has also received several grants of 
Amateur Radio station equipment from this program. Richardson is the 
sponsor of the school's Radio and Technology Club.

The balloon will be equipped with instruments to track its exact 
location and a camera that will take snapshots every 15 seconds. The 
students will stay on the ground and analyze the data as it is
transmitted back to them from the balloon. "As far as I can research, we 
are the first elementary, middle or high school to launch a near-space 
balloon in our state," Richardson told the ARRL. The balloon will launch 
from the Madison County Career and Technology Center in Gluckstadt. 
Preflight will begin at 90 minutes before the scheduled launch. The 
preflight and launch will be stream-cast live on the Internet at, 
http://www.ustream.tv/user/kc5nxd.  You can also follow along on Twitter.

"Our students are busy with assembly and payload testing right now, 
preparing for launch day," said OTMS Principal Allen Lawrence. "This is 
really a great science experiment and they are all excited."

Richardson is encouraging radio amateurs to follow the balloon via APRS 
on 144.39 MHz, on http://aprs.fi with the call sign kc5nxd-11 and via a 
2 meter voice beacon on 146.565 MHz. A 20 meter beacon at 
14.079-14.080.5 MHz will offer telemetry in four modes: Domino-ex16, CW, 
RTTY and Hellschreiber.

According to Richardson, the group will be using a special 
balloon-modified version of FLdigi, called dl-FLdigi. Ground stations 
receive the balloon's telemetry via the program's soundcard decoding 
software (available as a free download from http://www.w1hkj.com). "In 
essence, you are creating your own HF or VHF APRS-style network on the 
fly," he explained. "When a valid frame is received by a ground station, 
it is then sent via dl-FLdigi to a server that then plots the position 
onto a website dedicated to high altitude ballooning."  The website can 
be found at, http://spacenear.us/tracker.

Richardson said that the students need help to grab data packets or use 
the FLdigi to relay to packets to the network: "With the new telemetry 
system, we will have a better data set for a final landing
spot, as well as research data."

The launch is in partnership with the Mississippi State University's 
Bagley College of Engineering's aeronautical engineering program, which 
has provided support and supplies to the students' efforts.
The project has already received national attention from The Sally Ride 
Foundation, named after the first American woman to fly in space. The 
foundation -- dedicated to supporting girls' and boys'
interests in science, math and technology -- sent the students a letter 
of support and congratulations in advance of the launch. All funding for 
the project has come from donations and fundraisers. The
project has received support from the local community, including the 
Jackson (Mississippi) Amateur Radio Club.
NNNN
/EX