“Eclipse Flights And Beyond”
Academic High-Altitude
Ballooning Conference
St. Catherine University
May 29–31, 2024
The Stratospheric Ballooning Association is sponsoring the 2024 Academic High Altitude Ballooning Conference at St. Catherine University, starting at 1 p.m. on May 29 and ending at Noon on May 31.
The conference is open to all members of the public. SBA members will receive discounts to the conference. Registration is $100 for students and $200 for adults and faculty.
Registration and hotel information for the conference and workshops can be found at the Stratospheric Ballooning Association website.
Pre-Conference Workshops
There will also be two pre-conference half-day technical workshop at University of Minnesota Minneapolis on May 28, 2024, and a third technical workshop at St. Catherine University on the morning of May 29, 2024.
Registration for each workshop is $20, or all three workshops for $50.
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Workshop #1
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
8 a.m. – Noon
Akerman Hall
110 SE Union Street
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis Campus
Introduction to using Graw radiosondes and Grawmet software. This workshop is specifically for Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project engineering teams (and all other interested parties) who want to learn more about the radiosondes used by the NEBP Atmospheric Sciences teams (and by the National Weather Service).
The workshop will include a radiosonde launch, monitoring of telemetry data, analysis of telemetry data, and a chance to play with both flight hardware and also the ground station hardware and software needed to do commercial radiosonde ballooning.
Instructed by St. Cloud State University.
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Workshop #2
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
1 – 5 p.m.
Akerman Hall
110 SE Union St
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis Campus
This workshop is for all ballooning teams. The PADL-33 flight computer is based on an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense microcontroller. This sensor suite is a follow-up for the PTERODACTYL flight computer used by Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project engineering teams.
The PADL-33 comes in several variants for use in stratospheric ballooning and high-power rocketry. There is even a plug-together (solderless breadboard) version which allows users to do wiring, in addition to programming. The PADL-33 sensor suite features GPS, nine DOF IMU, pressure, two temperature sensors, and microSD card data logging.
The workshop will include instructions on building and using the PADL-33 flight computer in its various incarnations and adding additional sensors (wiring and programming), especially I2C sensors, to the basic PADL-33 sensor suite.
Instructed by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
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Workshop #3
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
8 a.m. – Noon
St. Catherine University
2004 Randolph Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota
Using “low-cost” radiosondes. This workshop is for all ballooning teams (including Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project atmospheric sciences teams that already fly Graw radiosondes) to learn to assemble, program, and fly low-cost radiosondes developed by ERAU.
These radiosondes are comparable in cost to Graw radiosondes, but the ground station is much less expensive (basically just a radiosonde that stays on the ground) and it is possible to have a single ground station deal with telemetry from up to six flight units at the same time.
Sensor quality is similar to commercial radiosondes, but the entry price-point is far lower than the Graw system. This workshop will include multiple radiosonde launches, monitoring of telemetry data, analysis of telemetry data, and a chance to play with the flight hardware and the ground station hardware and software needed to do low-cost radiosonde ballooning.
Instructed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach.
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Stratospheric Ballooning Association Website
2022 Academic High Altitude Conference
2020 Academic High Altitude Conference
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