engineering design day 2012 - College of Engineering @ The ...

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VIEWING EARTh’S CuRVATuRE WITh A WEAThER BALLooN
Interdisciplinary Engineering Design Program
CLASS
ENGR 498A/B
SpoNSoR
Lockheed Martin
Advanced Technology Center
SpoNSoR mENToR/ADVISoR
Richard Tansey
pRoJECT mENToR
Doug May
TEAm mEmBERS
Austin Byrne (ME)
Xochitl Cooper (OSE)
Devinna Fleming (OSE)
Derek Koomar (ME)
John Morales (EE)
Sam Nerenberg (OSE))
EE = Electrical Engineering
ME = Mechanical Engineering
OSE = Optical Sciences & Engineering
TEAm 4959: pRoJECT SummARY
The scope of the project was to
design, fabricate, and launch a
suitably equipped weather balloon
to take a video at a sufficient
height to see the curvature of
the Earth. Different types of
sensors were employed in the
project to acquire environmental
data in the area of launch. The
platform that the team developed could be used for remote sensing to detect
environmental concerns such as ozone increases, nuclear radiation levels from
the Japanese accident, or other forms of pollution. In addition, the team included
a more advanced live video transmission module to be added to the platform for
instantaneous viewing of video captured.
The goal and final result to be delivered to the sponsor:
Launch camera to a sufficient altitude to see the Earth’s curvature, locate and retrieve
camera and recording, and display the video at design day.