Students Partner Globally for High-Altitude Astrophysics Research Launch

A hearty group of SCH students partnered with institutions across the world—both universities and high schools—for a high-altitude balloon launch this past weekend. The launch was the pilot launch of a scientific collaboration called HERA (High-Altitude Engineering for Research in Astrophysics), led by Alissa Sperling (Physics Faculty, SCH), Christy Love (Physics Faculty, Drexel University), and Jackie Bondell (Senior Education and Outreach Manager, Dark Matter Centre); former engineering and robotics department chair Peter Randall also participated. 

The HERA project, a collaboration between U.S. and Australian high schools and universities, is aimed at getting students involved in authentic astrophysics research. Through HERA, students design experiments to study cosmic ray interactions with the Earth’s atmosphere and launch those experiments using high-altitude balloons. The research is generously supported by MDetect, a muon detector company founded at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, and the sixteen institutions partnering on the project, including SCH.

For the pilot launch last Saturday, four balloon teams across the United States (each team made up of a high school and a college/ university) simultaneously launched cosmic ray detectors, with each detector reaching a peak altitude of approximately 100,000 ft. at local solar noon. Teams had collaborated for about three months leading up to the launch, working on software, hardware, and payload design to ensure a successful cosmic ray detector launch and recovery. On the designated date, balloons launched from the Pennsylvania team (SCH/ Drexel University), the South Carolina team (J.L Mann Academy/ Furman University), the Texas team (Wall High School/ Angelo State University), and the California team (The Bay School of San Francisco/ Skyline College). 

SCH and Drexel University’s team, Devil Dragon Balloon Team, traveled to Havre de Grace, MD, to launch their two balloons. The balloons, named Alpha and Bravo, each contained a payload string of various trackers, cosmic ray detectors, sensors, and cameras. The balloons launched around 10:30 AM, and the students tracked their path across the sky for the remainder of the morning while enjoying brunch at a nearby diner. The Bravo balloon burst at 105,000 ft. and landed in a cemetery in Norristown, and the Alpha balloon burst at 93,000 ft. and landed at the top of a tall tree in Buckingham, Pa. The SCH portion of the team handled the Alpha balloon recovery, which involved a dramatic hike through a tick and spider-filled field, and the eventual recruitment of a crew of professional tree climbers, who were able to retrieve all the payloads intact. 

All four balloon teams from the Saturday pilot launch successfully retrieved their payloads, and the U.S. and Australian-based teams are now working to extract and analyze the data, plus refine launch procedures for an international simultaneous launch later this year. Sophomore Jude Hackford reflected, “Getting to work on a project like this has been an incredible experience. I love the hands-on aspect of ballooning. It is so rewarding to design, test, and launch something that goes up to near space. The opportunity to collaborate with my peers and the Drexel students has taught me a lot about teamwork, problem solving, and how exciting real-world engineering can be.” 

Congrats to all the students who participated in the payload preparations, launch, and/or recovery for this launch: Ben Barsotti, Alex Luce, Judah Meyer, Aaron Jia, Claire Lynch, Vivian Bodeman, Leo Cohen, Matthew Lee, Jonathan Vargas, Reed Knoblock, Ariana Chan-van der Helm, and Jude Hackford.