High-Altitude Astrophotography and Investigating the Ionosphere: 2020 WSGC ELIJAH High-Altitude Balloon Payload

Narisse King; Rebecca Joyce Alibio

doi:10.17307/wsc.v1i1.343

Authors

Narisse King Milwaukee School of Engineering
Rebecca Joyce Alibio Milwaukee School of Engineering

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17307/wsc.v1i1.343

Keywords:

high altitude balloon, nasa internship, atmosphere, atmospheric composition, astrophotography, solar eclipse, totality, luminance, solar radiation, magnetic fields, deep space objects, COVID-19, arduino,

Abstract

The objective of the 2020 WSGC Elijah High-Altitude Balloon Payload Team was to design a payload intended to collect data during the total solar eclipse taking place in April 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to the research team, primarily restricting their correspondence to remote meetings and preventing them from fabricating a payload to launch for flight testing. Ground-based experimentation was conducted to analyze the viability of each of the payload modules to be constructed and launched in a future research term. Two of the four designed experiments are elaborated on in this document: an astrophotography and luminance tracking system to image celestial objects and determine the visibility of deep-space objects, and a surveillance system to identify and measure variation in magnetic fields and solar radiation in the ionosphere.

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