DeepSpace 9

https://linktr.ee/deepspace9

https://github.com/DeepSpace9x/Stratofox

Challenge Name : Near Space, Near You

Objective of the Challenge

Our challenge is to develop a lesson-plan and bill of materials (BOM) to teach students how to build a low-cost HAB capable of reaching near-space. For this purpose, we are assuming “near-space” as the Earth’s atmosphere between 20 kilometers and 100 kilometers above sea level. The lesson-plan shall include 5 main parameters:

• Planning
• Preparation
• Launch
• Tracking
• Recovery of a HAB

Idea : The idea is to create an Android based app which can serve as the one stop solution from which the students can learn the following things :

• Fundamentals of a HAB
• Design the experiments using the guidelines and Bill of Materials (BOM)
• Build the HAB
• Testing
• Apply the correct retrieval / recovery procedure
• Conduct scientific experiments from data collected
• Comparing it with real world model and expand their knowledge

This app will be interactive and intuitive, designed in such a way that follows the best teaching pedagogy and can be considered as a standalone resource. It will help the students learn the community guidelines and follow government protocols involved in launching a high altitude balloon.

We will provide all the resources that the students might require during or before the experiment. The app will also help them set the outline and budget of the overall activity.

Implementation : The Android app will be developed using Kotlin. The app will be based on interactive designs and illustrative resources. Flow : The app will follow a module based design which will be based on research content and distribute the content in easy to understand lessons. Mentorship : Help the students connect to different space agency and communities. Bill of Materials (BOM) : All the equipment (like the payload, parachute and balloon) will have a detailed and specific description. Students can directly purchase the material required to build a balloon using certain global e-commerce links or global vendors. It will help them set the budget of the experiment and design the outline accordingly.

The agenda of our near space near you challenge is to develop a lesson plan and bill of materials(BOM) to teach students how to build a low cost high altitude balloon. The range for the flight of HAB is from 20kms to 100kms above sea level.

Keeping in mind the main idea of the challenge, we have developed an Android based application which targets the audience i.e., 17 years old and onwards. It is an application which guides the students in learning about the various processes involved in the making of a HAB and provides information required before or after the experiment. It is an interactive and user friendly ,easy to understand, resourceful and an informative app. The user can create their personal account page and resources, tools,FAQs have been included for easier access to more information.

Workflow 

We will provide all the resources that the students might require during or before the experiment. The app will also help them set the outline and budget of the overall activity.

• Implementation : The Android app will be developed using Kotlin. The app will be based on interactive designs and illustrative resources.
• Flow : The app will follow a module based design which will be based on research content and distribute the content in easy to understand lessons.
• Mentorship : Help the students connect to different space agencies and communities.
• Bill of Materials (BOM) : All the equipment (like the payload, parachute and balloon) will have a detailed and specific description. Students can directly purchase the material required to build a balloon using certain global e-commerce links or global vendors. It will help them set the budget of the experiment and design the outline accordingly.
• Tools : An interactive tool to calculate the statistics involved in building a HAB.

The different parts of building a HAB have been incorporated in the lesson plan.The parameters are planning, preparation, launch ,tracking and recovery .

Planning deals with understanding the goals and objectives of the project.For conducting a successful launching of a HAB, the rules and regulations are a vital part which needs to be understood before starting the experiment.This parameter constitutes mainly of the information on how to begin the process of building a HAB.Every task needs a proper planning for an efficient execution therefore we have implemented this in the lesson plan.

The preparation section helps us to understand the various components required for a HAB.It consists of detailed lessons about the equipments, their working and their applications.It also teaches us about the construction of the HAB step by step and about the different calculations required. The physics involved in the working of a HAB has also been explained for the better understanding of the students.

Launch module explains the process of launching the balloon into the space in detail and also the rules and regulations that are to be followed.The filling process of the balloons and the safety measures that are to be taken are also mentioned.

Tracking is the process in which we are able to locate the position of the balloon with help of tracking devices. This consists of lessons about setting up the tracking station and explains the working of the different devices required in simple and easy to understand words.

Recovery helps us retrieve our payload after it has descended down with the help of the tracking devices.Sometimes the payload may get stuck in inconvenient places such as on top of trees so we have provided solutions for those too.

Our app has a section where tools are provided to calculate the burst altitude, landing location, amount of helium required for a convenient launch of the HAB.The bill of materials section states the cost of the materials which helps the students in calculating their budget. The community guidelines and the government protocols section has been included for a safe and legal and fun conduction of the experiment.There is a resources tab where we can access all the links for information. The FAQ has also been included for answering any queries regarding the HAB.

With the help of this app we can encourage students to learn about STEM and bring out the DIY culture. Even students having little to no knowledge about the HAB can build it through the guidance of our app.It is important because it helps in encouraging STEM education in India and in other countries as well. The students who are inquisitive about the space and want to explore it through the high altitude balloons can learn ,about it through this app. It promotes the importance of teamwork, planning, creative thinking, efficiency required in building a HAB.

To make the app more accurate and correct, we have used various data from different sources to design the content of the StratoFox. Since, it's a content based learning app, we have picked up data from various NASA Research papers and content from some space agencies as well. We have used the Resources tab extensively to understand and collect insights of the concept. Following are some resources :

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-mission-will-study-the-cosmos-with-a-stratospheric-balloon/

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/explorers_balloons.html

https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/balloons.html

https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons/

To describe about the mechanisms, statistics and workflow of the experiment, we have used some of the below research papers:

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2010-37 | Conner, J., & Arena, A. (2010). Near space balloon performance predictions. In 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition (p. 37).

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7943912 | Sushko, A., Tedjarati, A., Creus-Costa, J., Maldonado, S., Marshland, K., & Pavone, M. (2017, March). Low cost, high endurance, altitude-controlled latex balloon for near-space research (ValBal). In 2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference (pp. 1-9). IEEE.

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015APS..APR.D1020M/abstract | Miller, Z., Evans, A., Seyfert, J., Leadlove, K., Gumina, K., & Martell, E. (2015, April). Analysis of flight of near-space balloon. In APS April Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2015, pp. D1-020).

https://www.nasa.gov/content/research-publications-0 | NASA Research Papers

We also have taken account of data from some space agencies like ISRO, Inauguration of Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) - ISRO, and Canadian Space Agency to compare and contrast the different material available.

We have used different images, diagrams and concepts from these space agenices.

A hackathon is a place where a large number of people meet and collaborate to create a functioning software and hardware. It is a place where even strangers can meet and develop a great program.For me personally the space apps challenge was a great opportunity to interact and work with people in the coding department. As a beginner, i was lucky enough to be in a team with wonderful members who helped me in every task assigned to me . I was able to learn a lot of new things through this challenge such as the importance of teamwork, time bound tasks, efficiency, productivity, creative thinking, planning, execution. Being able to be the part of a team that is aiming to promote STEM learning in the community was a hands down best experience for me.The doorway to the world of competition coding was definitely opened for me by this challenge.I learned about coding, designing, various informations through research which enhanced the interest of learning more about these in the future.The members of our team were able to tackle the various problems that arose in the journey diligently which made me understand the importance of communication. The best part of it was the late nights that we stayed up to complete our tasks and agendas and worked together as a team.It was a surreal and a nerve wracking experience but we were glad being a part of it.

This challenge was chosen by the team because we wanted to create an app that would be an educational source for the students and provide every kind of information related to HAB. We wanted to promote learning through scientific space related experiments among the students.

The main approach that was set from the beginning was that this app would help the students as well as the community to learn about the space and explore the limitless world.Though many students are curious about the making of a HAB but they do not have the correct resources that are enough for them to understand the working and building of a HAB.This app aims to provide the correct information and be a guiding light for the students. Our approach was to inform the students that even without expensive equipments or spending thousands worth of money we can view the beauty of space .

Challenges and problems were bound to come during this journey of space apps challenge but with proper communication and understanding the members opinions and respecting each others decisions helped us to get through it. Conducting team meetings during any problems and reporting every work that had been assigned to us on time made the process of working efficient and smooth. We resorted to different resources provided by the nasa and watched the multitudinous videos available on the internet during any information related problems.Time was a major issue in the challenge but with proper organisation skills and by assigning tasks to each and every member of the team we were able to complete our challenge on time.

I would like to thank all the mentors that helped us in improving our content and guided us in the nasa space apps challenge.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-mission-will-study-the-cosmos-with-a-stratospheric-balloon/

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/explorers_balloons.html

https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/balloons.html

https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons/

We have used some YouTube videos as well to lay the fundamentals and write about the high level concept in easy and understandable manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdomWPu8cvg | Official Challenge Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiN2swiuibY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QudqzI2iKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDBEX6BD9Yk

To describe about the mechanisms, statistics and workflow of the experiment, we have used some of the below research papers:

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2010-37 | Conner, J., & Arena, A. (2010). Near space balloon performance predictions. In 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition (p. 37).

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7943912 | Sushko, A., Tedjarati, A., Creus-Costa, J., Maldonado, S., Marshland, K., & Pavone, M. (2017, March). Low cost, high endurance, altitude-controlled latex balloon for near-space research (ValBal). In 2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference (pp. 1-9). IEEE.

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015APS..APR.D1020M/abstract | Miller, Z., Evans, A., Seyfert, J., Leadlove, K., Gumina, K., & Martell, E. (2015, April). Analysis of flight of near-space balloon. In APS April Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2015, pp. D1-020).

https://www.nasa.gov/content/research-publications-0 | NASA Research Papers

We also have taken account of data from some space agencies like ISRO, Inauguration of Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) - ISRO, and Candian Space Agency to compare and contrast the different material available.

#NASASpaceApps2021, #Team_DeepSpace9, #NearSpace_MadeEasy

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.