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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientific Ballooning

Balloon Program Office

Student Opportunities and Internships

FLOATing DRAGON Balloon Challenge

The FLOATing DRAGON (Formulate, Lift, Observe, And Testing; Data Recovery And Guided On-board Node) Balloon Challenge (aka, FLOATing DRAGON) was developed to provide increasing opportunities for academic research institutions to contribute to NASA's Science Mission Directorate's (SMD) mission. Sponsored by NASA's Wallops Flight Facility's Balloon Program Office (BPO), the FLOATing DRAGON Balloon Challenge is open to teams of undergraduate and graduate college students who have an interest in aviation, ballooning, and guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C).

Through the FLOATing DRAGON Challenge, NASA seeks innovative ideas and prototypes for a guided data vault recovery system consisting of: 1) a deployer that can be mounted to a HASP-type balloon gondola; and 2) a node that can be dropped and fall gracefully to a pre-determined, safe waypoint for recovery.

Challenge Overview:

Initial participation involves the development of a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) submission package. After receiving feedback from the judges on the PDR, teams will have another opportunity to submit their final proposal via a Conceptual Design Review (CDR) Package. Based on a review of the CDR submissions, approximately four teams will be chosen to build and test their data recovery prototypes. Each finalist team will receive a small monetary award ($5,000) to help off-set costs associated with the development and construction of their concept and will also receive a standardized equipment and hardware package from NASA, including the data vault payload.

Each finalist team will be paired with a NASA Mission Manager in the BPO at Wallops Flight Facility, who will provide technical guidance for several months to help refine the team’s design and get it flight ready. Upon successfully passing a rigorous mission review process, finalist teams will ultimately be able to conduct a test drop of their data recovery system in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in August 2023.

The winning team may also have an opportunity to integrate their system into an official NASA development.

To learn more about the DRAGON Balloon Challenge, click here.

High Altitude Student Platform

HASP is a collaborative effort between Louisiana Space Grant Consortium at Louisiana State University (LaSPACE - LSU), NASA Balloon Program Office (BPO), and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) to develop and operate an inexpensive platform that can be used to flight-test compact satellites, prototypes and other small payloads designed and built by students. The High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) is designed to carry up to twelve student payloads to an altitude of about 120,000 feet with flight durations of 15 to 20 hours. To date, HASP has had 14 successful flights.

The objectives of HASP are to:

  1. Provide an annual near-space flight opportunity for student payloads.
  2. Carry student payloads to an altitude and for flight durations well beyond that possible with latex-sounding balloons.
  3. Excite and encourage students to participate in the aerospace workforce.

The HASP system, shown in flight configuration in the side image, supports up to twelve student payloads per flight and carries these payloads to an altitude over 120,000 feet for a duration of up to 20 hours.  All payloads are supplied with standard power, downlink telemetry, and uplink command interface, but the resources available are constrained according to the payload "class."  Eight "small" payload seats are located on fiberglass extension booms, as shown in the above image, while four "large" payloads can be accommodated on the top of HASP.

Small payloads are limited to 3 kilograms mass, dimensions of 15 cm x 15 cm area and 30 cm of height; Large payloads are limited to 20 kilograms mass, dimensions of 38 cm by 30 cm area and 30 cm height.

Under the support of the Louisiana Space Consortium and BPO, HASP flies in September once a year from the balloon base at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This period and location enables the longest flights possible for the student payloads for a continental US launch. A student team wishing to apply for a seat must apply by December of the previous year. These applications are reviewed by LSU, BPO, and CSBF, and the flight selection for the year is made by January. The section includes only the flight opportunity, for which the group is not charged, but funding for the payload development and team support must be obtained elsewhere.  Integration of the student payloads with HASP occurs during the June / July time frame at the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility located in Palestine, Texas. Following integration, HASP is shipped to the Fort Sumner flight line, prepared for launch in September.

All payloads are actively monitored and, if necessary, controlled throughout the flight. Payload data is downlinked to the ground station and then transferred to the HASP website every 15 to 20 minutes. It is available to students monitoring their experiments at their home institution. If necessary, commands can be uplinked to control various aspects of the payload. Before the flight, the student team provides HASP flight control with the list of commands they may need to uplink. The student team can then request flight control to uplink one or more of the commands on the list during the flight, which is done at the next available opportunity. Following the flight, HASP is recovered, and the student payloads are shipped to the home institution for analysis, refurbishment, or other processing.

Further information on HASP

NASA HASP Handout

Louisiana State University / Louisiana Space Consortium HASP website

(Link: laspace.lsu.edu/hasp)

Cubes in SpaceTM (CiS)

Overview:

Cubes in SpaceTM, a program by idoodledu inc., offered in collaboration with  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility, NASA's Langley Research Center, and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium provide students (ages 11-18) with an opportunity to design, build and fly experiments that are launched into space on a NASA balloon.

Program Goals:

  • INSPIRE students to be inquisitive and seek out knowledge
  • DEMONSTRATE to students the relevant interconnections between STEAM concepts
  • PROVIDE real-world experiences in which students apply their knowledge and skills
  • BUILD students' confidence in their own intelligence and problem-solving abilities

Past experiment examples

  • Effect of space radiation on teeth, electronics, fabrics, other materials
  • Tilapia skin dressings
  • Effect of g-force on bone
  • Effect of space flight on concrete
  • Effects of temperature on certain fabrics

Internships

BPO hires at least one intern for spring, summer, and fall of each year. 

The intern is heavily involved in lab work through the Balloon Research and Development Lab. They do hands-on materials research, coding, electronics development, data mining, CAD, and manufacturing.  

Internship Opportunities to apply for:

Intern: https://nasacentral.force.com/s/explore-opportunities

Stem Take Flight: https://vsgc.odu.edu/stemtakesflight/

Pathways: https://www.usajobs.gov/search/results?d=NN&hp=student&p=1

Fellow: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/fellowships-scholarships/index.html

For more information contact: Pat Benner patricia.a.benner@nasa.gov 

And visit: https://intern.nasa.gov/ 

NASA Code 820

Scientific Balloon Update

Report back for the latest update from NASA's Balloon Program Office.