High-Level Project Summary
Our project is an explanation of the requirements of launching an air balloon with low cost and high altitude. we are using some materials and methods that can make a difference that the usually used materials and the following methods. Our challenge is developing a plan for students to know how to build a balloon that can use low cost and high altitude materials and our project is well-explained and have a fully detailed method that can be followed by the students with the materials required. It is important as it can make the next generation of learners aware of the purposes of balloon uses and objectives.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Our Project is an explained plan for students to understand how balloons are working and the way to build a balloon in the cheapest way and with high quality. In our project, we explained the cheapest materials to be used to make a balloon with the highest possible altitude. The plan works by teaching students about the usually used method and the developed method and the materials that we saw as a good alternative for the most used materials. Our project easily explains the required materials and methods and contains the right materials to be used. we used eco-friendly materials that differ from the usually used ones such as using coir ropes and mats that are eco-friendly and cheaper than using nylon materials. also, the coir ropes and mats are can be used for short trips as they are not applicable to be used for long ones. We hope that our project can reach the largest number of people interested in being aware of balloon industries and their importance. We used only the verified data provided to understand the required process of development and its consequences.
Space Agency Data
The group used lots of NASA’s data in the demonstration of the group’s submission, which is twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide! This includes 92 released by the National Weather Service in the US and its territories. The balloon flights last for around 2 hours, can drift as far as 125 miles away, and rise to over 100,000 ft. (about 20 miles) in the atmosphere!
Weather balloons, which are made of latex or synthetic rubber (neoprene), are filled with either hydrogen or helium. The sides are about 0.051 mm thick before release and will be only 0.0025 mm thick at typical bursting altitudes! The balloons, which start out measuring about 6 ft. wide before release, expand as they rise to about 20 ft.
And the advantage of the weather balloon is that it saves about 1$ million per year That’s how much federal tax money the NWS anticipates will be saved by using auto launchers in Alaska in the long run. This translates to $20 million in taxpayer savings over the lifespan of the Alaska auto-launch network. This information helped the group to make a suitable launching, moreover, it helped the group in other parts of the project. In the part of balloon materials that the group must buy, so it would be a successful trial.
Hackathon Journey
Our hackathon journey was really amazing and deserved all the time and effort we spent. We learned a lot and we gained very amazing and inspiring experiences. many things inspired us to choose this challenge. We learned a lot about balloon industries and efforts done by NASA and its partners to help our earth to have better knowledge and management of things related to these studies. the most inspiring thing was that we understood that we can have an impact on the next generation of students to have a better understanding of the balloon industries and to understand the importance of having strong data networks that can be done by these kinds of inventions and projects. Also, in the last year, we studied a lot about pressure and its relations with balloons, airplanes, and space rockets and this was really inspiring to deal with a project that matches with things we studied academically. We faced really hard challenges like that some of the commonly used materials are expensive and not eco friendly, but we searched for the alternative and managed the disadvantages of the alternative materials to be suitable to be used. We would like to thank the local leaders as they helped us understand the aspects and advantages of the competition.
References
Muralikrishna, H. (2020). Hubpages. Retrieved from. https://discover.hubpages.com/business/eco-friendly-coir-rope-and-mats-natural-alternatives-to-nylon-and-plastics
Carpenter, M. (2019). Sciencing. Retrieved from. https://sciencing.com/sandstorm-projects-middle-school-8041806.html
Weather Balloon Facts: What They Are And How They Work. (2020). Ownyourweather. Retrieved from. https://ownyourweather.com/what-is-a-weather-balloon/
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.