John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences

News and information from the UND John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.

Space Grant Team Prepares for Total Solar Eclipse in 2017

In preparation for the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium (NDSGC) team recently traveled to Montana State University in Bozeman, MT to a workshop led by Montana Space Grant. Caitlin Nolby (Deputy Director), Marissa Saad (Coordinator), Michael Cook (Space Studies graduate student), and Madison Olson (Mechanical Engineering undergraduate) attended the workshop from July 15th to the 21st. Space Grant teams from all across North America are planning to travel to a location within the eclipse’s transit from Oregon to South Carolina. During the eclipse, these teams will launch high altitude balloons to 100,000 feet, streaming live video and images to the NASA website. We will be able to view the moon’s shadow upon the Earth while looking down from the stratosphere, something done only once before. Secondary payloads will carry additional science experiments, examining this once-in-a-lifetime event. The NDSGC is planning to launch from Rexburg, Idaho. At this informative workshop, they constructed their operational ground station and balloon-borne payloads. For more information on their eclipse endeavors, please contact Marissa Saad, at msaad@space.edu or visit space grant’s eclipse website, http://montana.eclipse.montana.edu.