LSU 09/29/06 Department Report - Oct 3, 2006 1

First Flight of HASP

S. Besse, A. Calongne, M. Cherry, A. Dominique, S. B. Ellison, R. Gould, D. Granger, T.G. Guzik, R. McNeil, F. Mingireanu, D. Olano, D. Smith,

M. Stewart and J. P. WefelDept. of Physics & Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA U.S.A.

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The Primary Problem

How do we get from … to here …Or I’d even be happy with …

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Build Practical Research Skills

• First need to establish the technical skills– Semi-formal “Student Ballooning Course” guides this process– 33 lectures in electronics, programming, design and management– 33 hands-on activities illustrate all the basic concepts– Takes place over fall semester

• Next need to apply these skills– Develop an experiment from “scratch”– Must have real science content

• no “cockroaches” allowed!– Go through all project phases

• design, development, fabrication, testing, operation– Series of reviews (written and oral) check progress– Takes place over spring semester– Science results presented after flight

• Skills apply to all S & E research fields.

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Programs in this series• Louisiana Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for Students (LaACES)

– Entry level uses small payloads (~500 g) with sounding balloon “vehicle”– 2006-2007 is the fourth year of operation

• LSU (10 students, extramural), UNO (5 students, extramural), LaTech (11 students, laboratory course), McNeese (6 students, extramural), SU (4 students, extramural)

• Physics & Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for Students (PACER)– Focus on establishing LaACES-like programs at HBCU

institutions– Bring teams to LSU for 9-week intensive summer

workshop– Mentor institutions during academic year– New start next summer, proposal pending at NSF

• High Altitude Student Platform (HASP)– For advanced undergraduates and graduates– Support student “thesis” projects– Developed here with support from BOR, LaSPACE,

Department, and College

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Major HASP Features

• Support & flight test up to 12 student built payloads– Eight small payloads < 1 kg & four large payloads < 10 kg– Fly to an altitude > 36 km for a duration of ~20 hours

• Provide payloads with serial uplink, serial downlink, discretes, 28 VDC power, & analog downlink– Downlink available in near real time

• Include CosmoCam for real time video during launch & flight

• NASA partnership supports three flights– First flight September 4, 2006– Two more flights, once a year

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Fly out of Ft. Sumner NM

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On-site Assembly & Testing

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Launch Day – Sept 4, 2006

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HASP Launched at 15:51 UTC

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18 hour flight, 15 at float

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Little damage on recovery

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Student Payloads• This year HASP flew 8 student payloads from 4 institutions and

students are in the early stages of analyzing their results.• University of Alabama – Huntsville:

– Infrared telescopes to remotely study the thermal characteristics of the balloon envelope (4 small payloads)

• Texas A & M University:– Video camera system to study remote sensing from high altitude (1 small)

• University of Louisiana – Lafayette:– Nuclear emulsion stack to investigate high energy cosmic rays (1 large)

• Louisiana State University (Mechanical Eng.):– Study the flow characteristics of various rocket nozzles as a function of

altitude (1 large payload)• Louisiana State University (Physics):

– Prototype of an accelerometer based inertial navigation system (1 small)

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Very preliminary results

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Summary

• The first flight of HASP was very successful– System was assembled, tested and flight ready about one week– ~18 hours from launch to landing, ~15 hours at altitudes > 110,000 feet – No glitches in telemetry and commanding throughout the flight– Thermal performance exceeded expectations (e.g. battery temp remained

above 10o C for most of the flight)– Student payload data, HASP housekeeping and position / altitude

information was available in real-time on the HASP website– Only very minor damage upon landing

• Yearly flights will support timely student payload development– Next Ft. Sumner flight expected for September 2007– CY2007 Call for Payloads was released Sept. 1, 2006, application due

Dec. 15, 2006• Further information and updates can be found at the HASP

website at http://laspace.lsu.edu/HASP/