[BLT] Ballooning project at high school

[MacAllister, Andrew [FRCO/HOU]]

Yes, this is the Booker T. Washington High School BLT!!!

(Thanks to John Reynolds - BLT-10 Webmaster for this info)

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May 25, 2002, 2:13AM

SKY IS NO LIMIT

High school seniors launch balloon built in engineering study

By STEPHEN DOVE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Nine seniors from a Houston magnet school watched four years of hard work
and dedication float into the stratosphere Friday.

After a four-day delay, the students from the High School for Engineering
Professions at Washington High School launched a weather balloon they have
been building since their freshman year. The team began building and wiring
the balloon's scientific instruments as an extracurricular activity and
finished it this year as part of a class.

They launched prototypes twice in previous years, but the final version was
the first to include a global positioning system allowing them to track the
balloon with a computer.

The balloon, launched from the Wharton airport, south of Houston, also
carried devices made by the students to measure temperature and air
pressure.

The instruments transmit data as radio waves, and the students interpret the
signals in a laboratory.

"Basically what we've done is taken what we've learned in our classes and
we've applied them to a real project," student Damian Canetti-Rios said. "We
were mentored by a professional balloon launch team that gave us the first
plans, and we've added something each year."

The experience gained from the project helped all nine students win
scholarships to engineering programs at universities across the country.

"For some scholarships, it showed our leadership skills and how we could
take an idea and figure it out," student Desi Bluiett said. "When we started
our freshman year, I didn't know anything about this. Now everybody out here
can work on this type of circuitry."

Steve Taamrat, one of the teachers organizing the project, said the balloon
reached 90,000 feet -- more than double the cruising altitude of most
commercial airliners -- before it burst and fell back to Earth by parachute.
Although Friday's launch was the last for the students, Taamrat said the
school may use their data to start a balloon launch program with a new
class.

Other seniors participating in the project were Etosha Cave, Anthony
Zalesky, Samara Olvera, Lloyd Emelle, Chris Prince, Daniel Limbrick and
Efrain Chavez.

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