Almost an infinite array of experiments can be devised and flown aboard a balloon.  The following are project ideas for a variety of engineering and liberal arts disciplines.

Aerospace / Systems Engineering

Long Duration Balloon Mission - With the selection of a zero pressure balloon or a latex balloon with venting, it is possible to float a payload at 80,000' to 100,000' for a 36-48 hours.  This allows the testing of solar panels, electronics, and a ground station in extreme conditions of cold and vacuum.

High Altitude Glider¹ - Design, build, and operate a glider at high altitude.  The earth's atmosphere at 80,000' is very similar to the atmosphere of Mars.  The glider would be lifted to an altitude of 100,000' on a balloon, released, and allowed to fly under control to the launch location or a suitable landing location.
 
High-Altitude Long-Endurance Aircraft - As a follow on to a high altitude glider, the aircraft could be equipped with a suitable engine to allow sustained flight at a high altitude.
 
High Resolution Imaging - Design a payload capable of taking pictures with a 35mm camera or a high resolution digital camera.  A payload with a digital camera could utilize a high speed data link to relay the pictures to a ground station in real time.
 

Electrical Engineering

Live Video Link² - Design and build a video modulator and transmitter to send live, color video to a ground station. Suitable frequencies and modulations schemes include AM in the 70cm band (420-450 MHz), wide-band FM in the L-Band (1.2 GHz), and wide-band FM in the S-Band (2.4 GHz). There are a variety of commercial products available that can be integrated or a complete transmitter circuit can be designed. In addition, the student will gain experience with antenna design, tracking, and receiver design.

Linear Transponder - Many commercial and amateur satellites feature a “bent-pipe” or linear transponder. An input frequency range block is received and then rebroadcast in another frequency block.

Cross Band Repeater³ - Design and operate a narrow band FM cross band repeater. Like a ground based repeater, when a signal is detected on the input frequency, a transmitter is keyed, and the signal rebroadcast on another frequency.  Two different bands are frequently chosen to ease the design and construction of the diplexer.

HF Digital Modes - The high frequency amateur bands 160m – 10m (1.8 MHz through 28 MHz) offer a wide variety of digital modes including FSK, PSK-31, and RTTY. Design and build a frequency agile beacon suitable for transmitting these digital modes. A design could include a modern DDS (Direct Digital Synthesizer) capable of tuning 100Khz through 30MHz.

Aircraft Transponder -  Fly a commercial aircraft transponder to allow tracking of heavier payloads (greater than 12 pounds) as required by the FAA.


Earth Sciences

The earth sciences encompass with a wide range of experiments including meteorology, pollution, and atmospheric content. The following are some examples of sensors that could be flown on a high altitude flight to measure a variety of conditions. The data could be logged during the flight for later analysis or sent to the ground in live telemetry reports.

Temperature -  Directly measure the ambient air temperature or internal payload temperature. With multiple sensors, measure the temperature of a shaded sensor vs. a sensor that is receiving direct sun light.

Humidity -  Measure the relative humidity or dew point vs. altitude.

Pressure -  Measure the atmospheric pressure vs. altitude as determined by GPS.

Wind Velocity and Direction -  Measure the wind velocity and speed vs. altitude.  Compare the data gathered to a National Weather Service balloon.

Thermal Noise -  Measure the thermal noise emitted by the earth vs. outer space at a variety of altitudes.

Computer Science

Embedded Control Software - Design a low power control system to operate a remote experiment, provide telemetry data to the ground, or accept ground commands.  Modern embedded control systems are typically programmed in a high level language such as C  or EC++.

Web / Java / Internet - Provide a web based, real-time tracking system to map the position of a balloon flight and report telemetry data.  Complete telemetry and position data is typically available through an Internet gateway.  ANSR typically routes the RF telemetry reports to this gateway to allow for remote processing.

Analysis and Processing - Analyze and process flight data using a variety of software packages such as Matlab.



¹ Currently a project I'm working on for ANSR.

² A group at Arizona State University is using a 434 MHz AM modulated television transmitters on a stabilized platform.  Project to fly July 2003.

³ A group at The University of Arizona flew a cross band repeater project in December 2002.