PSU Magazine Spring 2006

the balloon rises high enough Lo meet the suns rays while it's still relatively dark on the ground, "making it the biggest star you'll ever see," says Weis– logel. lL actually makes it easier for the crew to watch the balloon than if it was launched during full sun. The group whoops and cheers as the balloon lifts off and gains altitude. But the going up pan is only half the mission. The other is the coming down. An the balloons are designed to pop, either on their own or with help from a device onboard. As the balloon rises higher and higher-up Lo six times the height of a commercial jets cruising altitude-the atmospheric pressure decreases , allowing the helium inside to expand to the point where the balloon bursts. A parachute carries the payload gently to the ground, although at that high altitude it may have to fall a long way before there is enough air to fill it. 14 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 2006 The crew has been tracking the payload this whole time, so when the descent begins, Weislogel and his student make a mad dash to meet it. lt doesn't always go well. ln their July 2005 launch, the group raced across unpaved desert in vehicles woefully inadequate for the job. One, a Ford Taurus, scraped up so much sagebrush that the engine caught on fire. Turns out the fire was only one problem; the car bottomed out so hard on the rutted terrain that it smashed the transmission fluid pan and drained it completely. On another occasion, the group lost GPS contact with the payload, so they enlisted a local pilot to track it from the air. The pilot spotted the parachute and made wide circles around its descent path so the PSU students knew which direction to look. B eing on the balloon team helped Donovan Finnestad win a place in a The balloon crew includes specialists in radio communi– cations, global positioning systems ... even knots. PSU group that will participate this year in NASA's Reduced Gravity Flight Opportunity Program in Houston. Two teams from PSU out of 65 from throughout the country will conduct experiments onboard a flight craft nicknamed the Vomit Comet. The KC- 135 flies in a parabolic arc to attain zero gravity for 18 to 20 seconds, 30 times in a row. For Finnestad, theres a direct link between being selected for the Hous– ton project and the work he's done in the balloon program. Theres just noth– ing like the experience of sending a packet of electronics up into the ozone to get your experimental juices flow– ing. Even if a rancher has to return it to you in the mail. D (John Kirkland, a Portland freelance write,; wrote the articles "A Painful Interlude" and "Rising Temperatures, Sh,inhing Glacier" in the winter 2006 PSU Magazine.)