It All Comes Down to This...

It's finally here! Launch week is upon us with all of its colorful circuits, sleepless nights, and bipolar radios. Each team has soldered their circuit together with sensors in place. The program is being tweaked and finalized with all of the necessary bells and whistles by Michael and Andrew.  These two have stared at a computer screen for about 17 hours each day! Figuring out what is wrong is rarely easy, fast, or intuitive.  Exhibit A: The SD card reader that saves our data would not work when the GPS was plugged in. Once the pressure sensor part of the program was removed, both worked properly. If you can explain this then you are clearly smarter then 11 college freshmen. If you can't, well you still might be smarter than 11 college freshmen.

The radios seem to have a mind of their own, or maybe they just didn't like Michael and Andrew. Each team has 2 radios. One for in the balloon and one for on the ground. We also bought a 7th in case of emergency.  After much searching we found two hills .8 miles apart with a line of sight. 4 of the 7 sensors worked during that test. A small improvement from the 1/4 mile range before, but certainly a step in the right direction. Each test the radios seem to work better. The next time they reached a range of 3 miles. For the next test Kayla and Bub went on a windmill hunt. Dr. Rowley said that you could see the windmills in Bliss from the hill on Centerville Road. After leaving the circuit with suspicious looking  Yagi antenna  (good thing we live in trustworthy Houghton) along side of the road (clearly marked as radio testing equipment and not a bomb of course), they drove in the direction of the windmills.

Unfortunately Bub did not exactly remember how to get there and so they wandered around back country roads an hour and a half. Finally Bub said "turn down this road and we'll just head back". A minute later there were windmills all around. You always find something when you least expect it I guess. Their good luck shortly ended when there was absolutely no signal. Discouraged, they drove back to where they had left the other circuit. Turns out the antenna had blown over and disconnected the circuit. Maybe just maybe, the radios could still work. The second trip to the windmills was much faster because they knew how to get there. Using a program that Michael wrote they were able to collect data on the signal strength and data corruption rate. A strong signal at 7.5 and 5 miles away brought hope to the situation. You would think $600 radios that are supposed to go 30 miles should work extremely well  up to 15 or 20. Will they be able to transmit data through the entire flight of the balloon? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Things we've learned: 

1) 2 voltage regulators in parallel explode when put under high current draw. 

2) Our 3.7V batteries actually hold 4.2V and easily burn out battery clips. 

3) Powering an Arduino through Vin and the computer cable will fry it. 

4) When Ye Olde Antenna Lab in CO sends you an antenna kit, there will be assembly required. 

5) Going to bed when the birds are chirping is a very late night. 

6) In reference to 5, sleep is for the weak.

Tomorrow we launch! We have had months of planning, and now we are ready (or nearly so) to let our balloons fly into the atmosphere. Come out to Houghton College tomorrow at 11:00 am to watch!

-Kayla 

Big Balloons and High Roofs

Parachute Testing

If you think scientists don't get to do exciting things, then you haven't met our science honors group. On Monday Jordan, Olivia, and Kayla ran a parachute test from the roof with Dr. Rowley. Who doesn't like throwing things off roofs?! We used a high speed GoPro camera to videotape the falling package from the ground. After measuring the building using the windows as a form of ruler, we were able to calculate (frame by frame) the distance traveled per .001 second. We wanted to determine the terminal velocity and acceleration with varied weights. The variables of wind and difficulty of measuring a tall building made our data unreliable. You would expect the speed to increase with weight since it had the same parachute drag. Though we did not see the trend we expected, or a trend at all really (remember, it's science) we were able to get a rough estimate of how fast our balloon will be falling. 

Radio Home Base 

Meanwhile in RadioLand Michael and Andrew have been getting some mixed signals. With Michael on the roof with one radio and antenna, and Andrew walking around campus with a second set, they lost connection after about 1/4 mile (2 furlongs, 80 rods, 4.5 football fields, etc). That's great for a local campus radio station! The bad news is the stratosphere is more like 20 miles away which is quite different. Clearly the radios need some alterations. 

We have also been running tests on the laytex balloons that we will be filling with helium. In the gym we were able to measure how much force will be exerted on the string between the lunchbox (with all the components inside) and the balloon during liftoff. The last thing we need is for the string to break and our balloon to fly away without the attachment. After talking in some squeaky helium voices we filled one all the way up to 20 feet in diameter with air, much larger than we will need. This allowed us to analyze the pressure inside the ballon with respect to volume. The original intent was to fill one until it popped to find the maximum volume. The instructions claim they can stretch to 30 feet in diameter! Sadly, due to a lack of time and low ceilings, we were not able to pop the balloon. But hey, you can't have too much fun in one day right?! Especially since fun activities tend to be dangerous. NOTE: To all concerned mothers: All 11 of us are still alive... even if we haven't had enough time to call recently.

For reassurance, you should be sure to like our Facebook page because there are lots of new photos! Hopefully your work days haven't been as long as ours...bonus points to whoever guesses how many hours I spent in Paine today. :) 

--Kayla 

Mayterm Mania

So, I'm sure you've been wondering what the science honors group has been up too! Last week began our Mayterm session which means that our balloon launching date is going to be here soon. We are at Houghton until June 6, constructing our balloons, calibrating sensors, debugging programs, and learning how to analyze data. Currently, our balloons are planned to be launched on May 30th, so we have less than two weeks to finish our project! This past week we have been testing circuits and trying out our sensors. We also had a statistics lecture each day. Although we are extremely busy, we have also enjoyed playing frisbee on the quad, bike rides, and movie watching after class.
--Olivia

Sarah and April soldering parts.

Kayla and Jordan with their beautiful test circuit.

Dan intensely looks at sensor data.

Dan and Ruthanna constructing a circuit.

Team Maple Leaf conference.

Conquering Nature!

While many students headed home after finals for a nice long summer, the science honors group had a 6 day break before returning for our Mayterm session. Four of us (Kayla, Bub, Dan, and Michael) along with Whitney Farrand took a backpacking trip to the Adirondack Mountains. On Tuesday we drove to Deerfoot Lodge to pick up bear cans for our food (we can open them, bears can't). Things didn't go as planned and we actually had to spend the night in the cabins there instead of at our first campsite. The next morning we drove to our trailhead. Despite being way behind schedule we hiked super fast, made up the distance, and made it to our second campsite. Our leanto was near Bushnell Falls  so we went exploring and enjoyed the waterfall.

The next morning after fueling up on oatmeal, we were ready to head toward Mount Marcy. As elevation increased we began to see snow around 3000 feet. As long as we stayed on the packed section of snow in the middle of the trail (called the snow monorail) it was manageable. Once we hit 3600 feet the snow was deeper and harder to manage. Our feet were sinking more frequently into the deepening snow, making things difficult. Luckily, we were prepared with snow shoes thanks to Dr. Rowley's suggestion! After snowshoeing the rest of the way to the junction we dropped our packs and headed up Marcy. There was no one at the top so we were able to enjoy the view and the dinosaur gummy snacks we had packed. (Every hardcore hiker packs gummies.)

We considered using our snowshoes for traction on the way down, but quickly realized there was a much better way. With a running start we glissaded down the mountain face. Wearing t-shirts and pants it was like sledding in 60 degree weather. After a lunch break and picking up those heavy packs again we traveled on to Indian Falls.

A few more miles to our campsite and we were ready for some hot chocolate and sleep. Luckily our good luck with weather continued as we tackled Phelps on Friday. The trail was one mile of 3 feet thick ice. Though more difficult without crampons, we were able to carefully climb our way to the summit with only a few falls. 

At the top we saw rain clouds in many other places, but clear skies over our heads. 

Like good scientists assuming the storms may be headed our way, we made the slippery descent to the bottom, once again wishing we had crampons. After another lunch of peanut butter and jelly tortillas, we were ready to hit the trail again. The original plan was to drive back on Saturday morning. We were such fast hikers that we were able to finish the loop and drive back on Friday night. 

There is no way to describe how we started 5 hours behind schedule and ended a day early. What else would you expect from a group of determined academics? According to Michael's GPS we traveled a total of 28 miles and averaged 2.5mph. Our elevation range was between 2046 and 5354 with 5500 feet of climbing total. That can only be referred to, as conquering nature. 

--Kayla 

SerialRead, Write, WHAT?!

It's been a few weeks since we last posted. However, this does not mean we haven't been busy. On the contrary, so much has been going on in the science honors world that we haven't had time to post.

On the construction side of things, we moved from the retro circuit world to the futuristic microcontroller universe. In other words, a bunch of programming. So far, things are starting to come together. As a matter of intrigue, all our code for the balloon project is hosted here. For those of us who have never programmed a day in our lives (ie Bio and Chem majors) it felt like learning a foreign language. There are different functions that allow you to read data from an arduino pin [digitalRead(pin9)] and write it to a specific location [Serial.print()] to be stored or viewed on the computer monitor. Each of the pins on our arduinos will be reading data from the attached sensors (for humidity, oxygen, UV, etc). The communication between two Arduinos via radio will allow us to request data on the ground and have it transmitted to us.

Learning programming has been confusing at times but luckily the Arduino website has been extremely helpful.

On a completely different note, we're making frozen fish fillets (say that 3 times fast). We have chillers hooked up to our fish tanks and we are starting to cool the water. These machines pump water out of the tank, run it thorough a cooling system, and pump it back in. This allows us to set the water at various desired temperatures. The 3 tanks will be cooled down one degree per day to 65°, 50°, and 55°. Cortisol is a hormone released by fish in relation to stress. The lower the water temperature, the more stressed the fish will be. When we test cortisone levels in the water at the end, the coldest tanks should have the highest amount.

We are also collecting two other sets of biological data. We have been checking the nearby Rushford Lake, Spring Lake, and Moss Lake for ice levels. We want to see how long it takes for the ice covering the lake to be completely melted. Dr. Wolfe also has us recording the bud break of several tree species on campus. Data sets such as these are what scientists use to track the impact of climate change on the environment.

In other news, we are now famous! (so not really but we were featured in the Houghton Star, which is something... Next stop, NY times!)
--Kayla and Michael

Circuits

This past week in Science Honors, we were introduced to the world of circuitry. For me, this week felt like learning a new language: current, resistance, potential, Ohm's law, diodes, transistors, and voltage regulators...what?! Luckily, we used our class time to experiment and have some fun completing labs. Because our balloon project will require circuitry, this unit in class is super important for our balloon-launching-success! 

Let's take a look at some basic circuit-building vocab:

Diodes- current only travels one way through a diode; our diodes were LED. When current passes through them they light up. It was almost like playing with a Light-Brite!

The green light is a diode on one of our circuit boards.

Transistor- a gate controls the switch on a transistor. If the gate is closed, current will pass through; if it is open, current won't pass through. I think of it like an electric fence for cows: if you close the gate you'll get a shock if you touch the fence!

Transistor = small black square

Voltage Regulator- regulators are so useful in making circuits. What do you do if you have a 9 volt battery and want to light a diode that can only receive 5 volts? Use a voltage regulator! Just like their name they 'regulate voltage'; they can receive 9 volts in and send 5 volts out. They come in many different sizes: 5 volts, 15 volts, 30 volts, etc.

The voltage regulator is located in row E of our circuit board.

Resistor- resistors are used to regulate the flow of current by decreasing the amount of current. Resistors remind me of a traffic jam on the highway where only a small stream of cars get through.

The wires are connected to the resistors.

A 'mini resistor' on our circuit board. The colors of the bands indicate how much resistance it has.

At the beginning of the week, the only experience I'd had with circuits was a 6th grade project when I made a merry-go-round that very slowly rotated. By Friday, however, I had helped design circuits, drawn up schematics, and assembled circuit boards. This semester has been filled with so many new learning experiences!

--Olivia

Hatching Fish

Last Thursday, we went to a fish hatchery. If you're like me, that means absolutely nothing. So let me explain...

Caledonia Fish Hatchery

The map above is the hatchery we went to (apparently the oldest one in the northern hemisphere). The point of a fish hatchery is to, well, hatch fish. Essentially, they raise fish from eggs to normal fish-size, and then release them somewhere, in the wild or otherwise. At the hatchery, they have the whole gamut of fish-sizes, from the size of your pinky to the size of your arm. So how do they raise them?

These bins feed the fish.

The little black boxes in the map above are pools of water, which is actually redirected from the stream right next to the facility. All the pools have fish in them that, interestingly, feed themselves. Staff fill up bins (see picture to the right) in the morning, with a specific amount of food, and the fish basically bump into a bar inside and knock food down (kinda like a cereal dispenser).

They only have a few workers at the hatchery, so the dispensers allow them to spend more time on other things and less time feeding fish.

It was pretty cold walking around, but it was still pretty interesting (I think that my feet almost froze off). I was personally amazed at how the fish were quite lively in the water, even though it was so cold; I'm not a Bio major, however, so this may be standard procedure.

Overall, it was a good time.

--Michael

I enjoyed this sign.