Citrus College Near Space Balloon Project 2013-2014 Volume 1 | Page 7

to explore a correlation between the aurora borealis and sounds that have reportedly been emitted during its activity. There has been very minimal research conducted regarding the aurora borealis. The team hopes to gather enough data to better understand why the phenomenon occurs and to develop research and engineering skills to conduct recordings. In addition the team hopes to record the sound of a whistle at supersonic speed. In order to achieve this, the team will design an aerodynamic vessel that is able to achieve speed higher than MAC 1 falling from approximately 20 mi, and be able to land it safely. Therefore, the project will integrate engineering skills and creativity. An experiment such as this has not been conducted before. Thus, any discoveries regarding the recorded sound from the whistle at supersonic speed will allow the team to understand the limits of sound traveling faster than the speed of sound. A flight experiment was conducted at the NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, using an SR-71, an F-16XL, and a YO-3A airplane in 1999, to study the propagation of sonic booms. This work is geared toward developing a high-speed civil transport (HSCT) aircraft for operational use early in the next century. (Preliminary Airborne Measurements for the SR-71 Sonic Boom Propagation Experiment, Haering, Edward A., Jr., Ehernberger, L. J., and Whitmore, Stephen A., NASA TM-104307, 1995) Recently, building on NASA’s experiment conducted several years ago, the Japan Aerospace Exploratory Agency (JAXA) Supersonic Transport Team has been developing a Sonic Boom Measurement System. The team developed a real-time monitoring and data-logging system using NI PXI hardware and LabVIEW software that measures sonic booms indoors and outdoors as well as the resulting vibration of the windows and walls of the test building (Yusake Naka).Their research emphasized the capturing of detailed multichannel sonic boom histories to validate aircraft design concepts that reduce sonic booms, which is necessary for next-generation supersonic transport. (http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-13996) The team’s experiment will build on the previous work done by NASA and JAXA, however, it will not deal with sound reduction, and instead will increase the sound frequency that is produced by a whistle that emits a supersonic sound.

d. Methodology/Process
The five days the Space Owls will spend in Alaska will give the team ample time to launch a high altitude balloon. Depending on which day the aurora borealis is strongest, the team will launch an 1800g balloon attached to a parachute and payload. The payload will consist of; a GPS tracker, camera, portable sound recorder, and hand warmers. The GPS tracker will allow the team to track and retrieve the payload once it has landed. The purpose of the camera would be to take photos of the aurora borealis. The portable sound recorder will record any sounds in the upper atmosphere. The hand warmers will prevent the equipment from freezing due to cold temperatures. The parachute will slow the descent of the payload and prevent the team’s equipment from being destroyed upon impact