Building a Weather Balloon!
projects, electronics ·Today we launched a weather balloon! Earlier this year I discovered that weather balloons are vital parts of exploring the upper atmosphere and beginning of space, so I set out to build my own! So, in this project I built an Arduino data recorder that recorded GPS, elevation, and temperature of the payload. I also designed and constructed the weather balloon itself. Some key challenges I faced were in creating a functional NEMA parser for my gps model and correcting the pin-outs from the sample design. Below are some pictures of the final product:
This test above is a tethered test which I performed to test my design and gather data. I chose not to release the balloon due to the difficulties of recovery, especially from my launch site on the East Coast, where the balloon is highly likely to end up in the Atlanic. With that outline finished, here are the steps I took in my project:
- Learned about weather balloons and accessible student space exploration through an MIT online lecture.
- Researched weather balloon applications, regulations, and existing content
- Contacted and Called Expert David Paterson to learn about the realities of weather balloon launches
- Developed a plan and Bought materials
- Constructed Aurdino prototype basing my design on this existing schematic
- Built the Weather Balloon on-site and Launched!
It was an awesome experience and I would recommend trying it yourself!