Interdisciplinary Project

In high school, I designed and built a high-altitude weather balloon with one of my friends. We started by coming up with mission goals and requirements; we then created a Kickstarter and raised nearly $1000 to purchase the required materials. I also worked with several companies for corporate sponsorship of both money and materials. We then built a custom flight computer based on a Raspberry Pi; I built the circuitry to connect the sensors to the Pi, while my friend Comran wrote the necessary code for the project. Additionally, I designed and manufactured the payload structure, power system, and antennas for long-range video transmission. Comran also created a website that would provide live position updates as well as the video stream for our backers to view.

In the end, our payload had both high-precision and wide-range barometer and thermometers, redundant GPS receivers, redundant accelerators, HD video recording, and live video transmission. We ran flight predictions using the Cambridge University Spaceflight Landing Predictor (CUSF Landing Predictor) to determine when and where we would need to launch in order to effect a successful payload recovery without putting bystanders at risk. The balloon was designed to fly up to 100,000 ft. before bursting, allowing the payload to parachute back to Earth. The CUSF Landing Predictor uses available meteorological data to predict wind patterns in the upper atmosphere up to a week in advance. By feeding in accurate data in regards to launch window, payload characteristics, and take-off location, our payload followed the predicted flight path almost exactly, and we were able to recover it once it landed.

A highlight of this project for me was taking over 2000 high-altitude pictures; I have included a few of my favorites taken from the edge of space.