Published: August 16, 2008 09:58 pm            

Space on a budget

• Oklahoma State reaches the final frontier — for $1,000

Oklahoma State University has been using weather balloons to reach the edge of space for four years.

Last month, the school’s Atmospheric and Space Threshold Research Oklahoma program teamed with OSU’s Radiation Physics Laboratory for a launch that begins a new phase of the ASTRO program.

ASTRO-9 was a 102-minute flight on July 8. An ASTRO balloon 12 feet in diameter carried a cosmic radiation detector 104,426 feet up to what is considered the edge of space. It landed in a field in Perry and was recovered, allowing the retrieval of data from the detector along with sensors for humidity, pressure and temperature. It also carried a high-resolution camera and a GPS module.

“The real important thing is we did it from our own backyard without any special technology,” said Dr. Eric Benton, who teamed with Dr. Eduardo Yuihara as representatives of the OSU physics department on the project. “We got just fantastic results and it was worked upon principally by students. The actual labor and all of this was all done by students.”

Carl Johnson, a physics graduate student, joined with Art Lucas of Lucas Newman Science and Technologies to design and build the detector. The launch was conducted by mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate students Xander Buck and Joe Conner and undergraduate Ryan Paul.

Dr. Andy Arena is a professor in MAE who is involved with ASTRO but downplayed his part in the project.

“What we really did is we gave the important part of the project a ride to space,” Arena said.

The detector was designed to give an accurate measurement of the radiation dose in that environment. Arena said it was “really, really sensitive” — measuring on a scale of femtoamperes (a billionth of a millionth of an amp) — but the exciting thing is they are coming up with a way to do these experiments relatively cheaply.

He said the costs include $300 for the balloon, $200 for helium and about $3,000 in start-up costs for the tracking systems, ham radio gear and GPS. Benton said the detector cost less than $150 and they may be able to bring it down from there.

“Your recurring costs are less than $1,000 a launch,” Arena added.

Benton believes reducing costs might allow students in college and high school to send up sensors and perhaps lead to a global radiation map.

The project started a year ago when they received a $250,000 annual grant from NASA for three years. That was matched 50 percent each by OSU and the State Regents for Higher Education.

There will be more launches. The sensor and balloon setup are being tweaked. They are shooting for November or December for the next launch.

The ultimate goal is to make the sensor sophisticated enough NASA could use it on a manned spacecraft headed to the moon or Mars.쾰

        

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