Monday, November 19, 2007
Balloon Launches to Study the Ozone
My First Launch of the SeasonI'm just a helper when it comes to these things. We launched around 10:30 at night in the middle of October, which is why it looks a little gloomy. Right now we've got 24 hours of bright daylight (when it's not overcast).
The first picture is of Jen filling the balloon. It was a bit windy so the balloon was blowing around a bit. The launch I helped with last year used a plastic balloon, but this was like a giant rubber balloon.
Here is Jen posing with the balloon.
Jen has attached a weight to the balloon to see if it has enough helium to lift the instruments. You can see her partner Lars in the back waiting to turn off the helium.
I helped Jen tie the instruments on. She is very specific when she does this, and mentioned that at one point, I would be the only thing keeping the balloon on the ground. I asked if anyone had ever accidentally let it go without having the instruments tied on properly. She laughed and said no, even though I was a bit nervous I'd be the first!! Since we were using this kind of balloon, I was able to launch it all by myself. Jen gave me the countdown, and then I first let go of the balloon with my right hand and then the string holding the instruments which I was holding in my left hand.
There it goes!!
The information gathered by the instruments attached to the balloon comes back to these instruments which are attached to the Crary Lab.
This is the computer in the lab that gets all of the information coming from the instruments: temperature, distance from the ground, etc.
My Second Launch of the Season
During the work day, Jen and Lars needed some help to do a large plastic balloon launch so me and 2 other co-workers went out to the edge of town to help with this one.
This is Jen working on weighting the balloon properly.
This is Nick, the instrument tech, and he was the balloon holder while we helped to attach the instruments on the other end.
Jen and Lars attaching the instruments while Paulene watches. These instruments cost somewhere around $20,000 on this particular launch!
I'm standing by the instruments looking down the tarp at the payload chute and the balloon at the very end.
Getting ready to release the balloon! When the weights were taken off, Nick was solely responsible for holding onto the 70+ pound balloon for a few minutes before take-off.
There is goes!!
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