Dec. 1, 2: Near-Space Balloon Competition for middle, high school students

The North Dakota Space Consortium will hold its annual Near-Space Balloon Competition, a dual-balloon launch for middle and high school students. This year, 10 teams from across North Dakota will arrive at UND on Dec. 1, where they will present their payloads and science objectives. The next morning, everyone’s payloads will launch aboard two large high altitude balloons from Northern Cass School in Hunter, N.D.

The kids will conduct hands-on STEM as real scientists and engineers.

UND has led the Near-Space Balloon Competition (NSBC), a statewide ballooning competition for middle and high school students, since 2012. The NASA- and state-funded Space Grant program supports teams up to $250 for payload materials, as well as their travel and lodging costs. It’s an entirely hands-on experience that gets students designing, building, and analyzing real-world experiments while launching balloons up to 100,000 feet. At this altitude, students’ payloads are above 99 percent of Earth’s atmosphere, which can be really inspiring and exciting for the kids. The photos and videos from this altitude are amazing! The mission objective, or NSBC theme, changes every year; this year, students will study Earth Science.

This year, the group will launch 10 payloads on two large helium-filled balloons. This year, the competing teams are from Grand Forks, West Fargo, Tower City, Kindred, Wahpeton, Garrison, and Hunter (Northern Cass School). The teams will travel to UND on Nov. 17, meet other students, present their experiments, pass their Flight Readiness Review, and tour the School of Aerospace Sciences. The next morning, they will drive to Northern Cass School to launch. Students will actively be engaged throughout the entire process, learning from the graduate students.

The balloon team consists of faculty, staff, and Space Studies graduate students. This team recently launched a balloon within the path of totality during the Aug. 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, as part of the national NASA Space Grant ballooning campaign. It’s really awesome to see students from all over North Dakota come together, learn, and experience the same mission.

For more information, please visit http://blogs.und.edu/nsbc/about/