Wiltshire
College & University Centre are delighted to have been awarded
£1500 by Chippenham Borough Lands Charity to enable the engineering
department’s latest enrichment project, which will see students send a
weather balloon up to 100,000 feet.
The
weather balloon, which will grow to about eight meters in diameter,
will have a camera, GPS tracking and other equipment onboard up to its
highest altitude before it parachutes back to earth. This will be
three-times higher than the cruising altitude of airliners and more than
three-times the height of Mount Everest.
Mark Ghinn, Lecturer in Electronic Engineering, organised the enrichment project to help the College’s engineering students gain valuable experiences alongside their studies.
Two
projects the department previously embarked on – a soapbox to compete
in the Westbury White Horse Soapbox Derby, and a Land Yacht to compete
against other schools and colleges – were unfortunately postponed due to
teaching being off-campus, and the cancellation of the White Horse
Soapbox Derby event.
Therefore, on returning to campus, Mark and his students wanted to resume something that they could realistically complete by the end of the academic year, ultimately deciding on the balloon project.
Mark said: “The students are very much looking forward to it. They have already invested a lot of time and thought into the project.
“It
is hoped that other students, staff, families and locals will also be
able to enjoy it. The balloon will be visible through binoculars for
part of its ascent, will get larger as it rises and be airborne for
about four hours.”
The
students working on the project will need to consider factors that they
may not normally get the opportunity to experience, allowing them to
learn from considerations including buoyancy, meteorology, GPS tracking,
air traffic, thermal insulation, safe payload descent and recovery. For
example, the balloon will fly where the air density and air temperature
are very low, perhaps –40°C, where batteries tend not to work. It will
also fly out of sight, becoming subject to wind speeds and directions
that are different to those at ground level.
The students have also
had to source a suitable balloon, tracking equipment, helium, and other
necessary equipment. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have been
contacted and have granted permission to fly and to issue a Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) so other aircraft are aware of the location, size and ascent time of the balloon.
There
are many more logistics for learners to get involved with pre-launch,
such as designing and constructing the payload, sourcing weather
predictions to approximate landing location and helium content, with
ascent rate being calculated on the day depending on wind speeds and
directions.
The
launch is planned for Monday, June 21st at 8am from the grounds of the
Chippenham campus. However, this will be weather dependent and subject
to the continued permission of the CAA.
Once
launched, the group will drive to the expected landing location while
tracking the GPS location of the balloon. Contact is expected to be lost
with the balloon once it reaches two or three miles altitude, but will regain contact during its descent, which will provide a point on a map to recover it.
Mark added: “The
students are thrilled to be involved in a practical project again.
Chippenham Borough Lands Charity have been instrumental in enabling this
to happen. We’re counting down to launch day now!”
