ODCS launches high-altitude balloon, student STEM project
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(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Open Door Christian School students transport a high-altitude balloon out of a hangar at Graham Municipal Airport before launching it on Saturday, Nov. 12. The balloon traveled from Graham to Keller and was later recovered by a team of students and adults at the location. -
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CLAIRE MESCHKAT) One of two GoPro cameras attached to the base of a payload takes a photo of the curvature of the earth and space before it pops and makes it descent. The base had different experiments and instruments to measure temperature, altitude and more. -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Open Door Christian School students check components of the base of the payload the STEM class launched on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Graham Municipal Airport. The payload was later found in Keller. -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER)
Open Door Christian School students successfully launched and recovered a high-altitude balloon containing experiments and GoPro cameras Saturday as part of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics project.
The students were tasked with designing a payload that would be lifted into the earth’s atmosphere by a high-altitude balloon. Twenty-two ODCS students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade launched the balloon from Graham Municipal Airport on Saturday, Nov. 12. ODCS STEM Director Claire Meschkat said the second launch from the school was a success reaching a max altitude of 65,000 feet.
“It went a lot smoother this year. We had more students working on it, which was great. They all knew what they’re supposed to be doing. Everything seemed to be going well. (...) We had to remove some things from the payload to make it lighter since we were running out of helium. We wanted to make sure that it would take off, so that went well. We had a tracker that was not responding at first, we were able to overcome that as well. Last time we did this project, we had one tracker that worked (and) this time we had three. So we were determined to find it on the first go around,” she said. “We launched the balloon and then we started immediately getting feedback from the trackers as to where it was and our recovery team took off. Our recovery team was the STEM teacher Laci Nelle, and one of the parents of Raylie Seyler (...) and then it was Raylie and Nolan Wankowicz and (Jack Menard and Lexi Enns).”
During the first project launched by ODCS the balloon landed in a tree in Bedford. This year, the project landed in the back of a pickup truck parked in Keller. Meschkat said the recovery team was able to track the payload and recover it from its end location.
For the full story, see the Saturday, Nov. 19 edition of The Graham Leader.
