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A block diagram of the NEBP ballooning system with additional functionality added for APRS tracking and muon detection
Annular Eclipse balloon flight path, Oct. 14, 2023
Students working on the solar eclipse balloon system.
Working in collaboration with NASA and many other teams across the country our 成人禁区 High Altitude Ballooning Team has an ultimate goal of capturing a live streaming video and still images of the first total solar eclipse to cross the United States in 38 years. The eclipse will be happening on August 21 st, 2017. Many teams from different schools across the country will be launching high altitude balloons that will travel over 80,000 feet into the sky to capture the eclipse. Since the total eclipse only lasts for a few minutes, the 成人禁区 ballooning team has been preparing for almost two years to build our systems and get our equipment ready for a successful launch. A few team members traveled to Montana in the summer of 2016 to build the ground station that is used for tracking the balloon and also build the payloads that will capture the video and still images taken throughout the balloon's flight. This equipment was provided through collaborations with NASA and Montana State University.
Balloon System Flowchart
In addition to the baseline system mentioned above, the 成人禁区 ballooning team has been developing its own tracking system that utilizes three different modes of communication technologies - let's call that a multiband tracking subsystem (MTS). The three communication technologies that comprise the MTS include a 900 MHz RF system, an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) operating at ~150 MHz, and a cellphone-based tracking system operating at ~2 GHz. The MTS also utilizes a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and a micro-controller unit (MCU). The payload's real-time position will be acquired by the GPS receiver, and the MCU will convert the raw GPS data into a set of formatted strings of positioning information. These strings will then be transmitted to the ground where each subsystem's receiving end will map and track the payload with real-time location-mapping software developed by our team utilizing Google Maps. Finding the payloads after the launch is important to retrieve the still images that were captured of the eclipse. The team will be traveling to Cadiz, Kentucky a few days before the launch to meet up with the other teams that are also traveling to Kentucky and to prepare for the upcoming solar eclipse. If the teams are successful in providing a live streaming video of the eclipse, then these streams will be available to the general public on August 21 st through the NASA website.
