Great Falls College MSU students prepare to document solar eclipse
By Erin Granger
Great Falls College MSU News Service
Just before dawn on April 30, two van loads of college students arrived at the Choteau airport.
The aircraft they were preparing to launch had no wings, no propellers. It was instead fueled by helium – a giant high-altitude balloon that would allow the students to get a glimpse of the edge of space.
The recent balloon launch was a test launch for a project that is still more than a year away. Great Falls College MSU is part of the Eclipse Ballooning Project. The project, funded by a NASA Space Grant, will document the total solar eclipse that will occur on Aug. 21, 2017.
On that date, students across the country will conduct high altitude balloon flights, sending photos and videos from space back to earth so people can watch live as the eclipse occurs.
“The path of the total solar eclipse just barley brushes the southwest corner of Montana,” said Matthew Fisher, biology instructor at GFC MSU and the site coordinator for the ballooning project. “In the rest of the state, there will still be a solar eclipse, but we will see a sliver of the sun that’s not eclipsed.”
While the eclipse is still more than a year away, students at GFC MSU have been working for several months to get ready for it.
Students at colleges across the state have been tasked with finding solutions to some of the challenges this project poses. At GFC MSU, students in the STEM Club are working on finding a way to keep the camera attached to the high altitude balloon pointed at the sun.
“The balloon spins as it rises through the atmosphere, so figuring out a way to keep a camera pointed at the sun is a challenge,” Fisher said.
STEM Club students designed a system that uses a compass to keep the camera pointed in one direction.
“The sun is in a certain position in the sky every day,” said STEM Club member Louis Solana. “We will know that direction depending on the day we send it up.”
For example, on a certain day the sun maybe at 130 degrees east. The compass on the camera mount can be programed to face that direction. Then, as the balloon spins, an accelerometer will keep the camera pointed at 130 degrees east.
“There are two accelerometers,” Solana explained. “When one becomes misaligned, the other turns to compensate. It does this, hopefully, five times per second.”
The accelerometers the STEM Club used are the same type that are used to keep drone cameras steady.
“Ultimately, the technology came from the Wii gaming system,” said Josh Minardi, STEM Club member and avid drone flyer.
STEM Club students combined sensors, computer chips and a GoPro camera to make their sun-tracking system. They used the 3D printer at Great Falls College MSU to design and create pieces to hold everything together.
The project spanned all the STEM fields, bringing together science, technology, engineering and math, Fisher said. Different students whose strengths lie in specific areas were able to combine their expertise to make the project a reality.
“It’s a very unique opportunity,” Fisher said. “It’s really exciting for everyone involved and fires them up.”
“It’s something that would be cost-prohibitive if a student wanted to do it on their own,” Fisher added.
The Montana Space Grant Consortium pays for the helium to launch the balloon, the camera and other electronics.
Unfortunately, things did not go exactly as planned on the April test launch.
“Our device wasn’t working,” Fisher said. “Come Saturday morning, we turned it on and it wasn’t working.”
The group is still working to figure out exactly what the problem was, but no one expected things to go perfectly on this first launch.
“We knew it would fail,” Solana said. “The way it broke will inform the next design.”
Students will have the chance to do a couple more test launches this summer and keep refining the camera system.
“This is very much a fly-by-your-pants type of thing,” Solana added with a laugh.
While the whole system didn’t work during the first test launch, the camera still captured footage.
“The camera worked,” Fisher said. “We got some cool video,”
The balloon reached a height of 105,000 feet before it burst and began falling back to earth.
“You can see the latex balloon just shred, then as the camera points up, you see the edge of space and the curvature of the earth,” Fisher said.
Another shot shows an aerial view of Choteau as the balloon takes off.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board for the STEM Club. They have a chance to take another look at their design and further refine it, undoubtedly learning many science, technology, engineering and math lessons along the way.
Great Falls College MSU is a stand-alone two-year institution of higher education, offering certificate and degree opportunities to students in northcentral Montana and across the state. The college provides students with the opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of their families through affordable education.
For more information on the STEM Club at Great Falls College MSU, contact Erin Granger at 406.771.4314. For information on enrolling at GFC MSU, contact admissions at 406.268.3700.
