Make to Innovate (M:2:I)
Toggle Menu

High Altitude Balloon Experiments in Technology (HABET)

PROJECT MISSION

H.A.B.E.T.’s mission is to provide a platform for students, professors, and other interested third parties to perform experimentation and design work that would require a high-altitude balloon system.

Figure 1: The first full flight mission of the semester with the Fall 2024 HABET team, taken at balloon fill at the launch pad, just outside of Howe Hall’s wind tunnel access here in Ames.

Project Goals

  • Primary goals for the project are to develop a more cohesive and comprehensive mission control system, complete with documentation and checklist that emulate proper flight missions, development of HABET’s current avionics systems for more accurate sensory and telemetry data, and spacecraft design and development for more indirect flight path control for future flights. Secondary goals include improvements to current operating procedure documentation in the creation of one cohesive document. This will be developed into what is being referred to as the “HABET Bible,” a collection of procedures, common tasks, and general information used throughout the team.

Project Deliverables

Deliverable 1: Create a set of standardized operating procedures (S.O.P.) manual for the full functionality of the H.A.B.E.T. Project. This manual will concatenate all of the high-level and mid-level S.O.P.s for each general task performed on the project, i.e., Spacecraft Assembly, Launch Procedures, and task-related hazards and (Personal Protective Equipment) P.P.E. requirements.

Deliverable 2: Complete a final revision on H.A.R., B.E.R.T., and Athena systems, including any additional modules and hardware added. Final copies of all software, firmware, and schematics will be made available on the HABET GitHub site. A report that includes a summary of all changes made, visual and numerical data gathered from this testing will be submitted and displayed at the end of the spring 2025 semester.

Deliverable 3: Finalize the design of the “Puck” spacecraft [codename T.B.D.] design with a standardized connection method, design schematic documents displaying dimensions, and a standard build procedure with a complete hardware list. The physical prototypes and final design will be displayed at the M.2.I. Expo at the end of the semester.

Next Steps

The major projects the team is working on are primarily focused on the summer. The largest event is the Space Camp, where they intend to create a workshop targeting students grade 9-12 over several sessions. Students will get the opportunity to program small electronics such as Micro-Bit boards, to gather sensor data and raise a “flag” onboard the spacecraft when it reaches the target altitude. This will give the attendees the chance to learn about near-space conditions, space missions, and and working with electronics and gain programming skills.

Another event focus, targeted for earlier in the summer, will have HABET team up with a group of physics major students from the University of Iowa. The U of I students will be designing and building the payload intended to measure stratospheric radiation. This project will target tackling physics problems while teaching about how integrating a payload into a spacecraft, including what logistics for dimensions as well as regulations per the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA expectations.