HASP (High-Altitude Student Platform) progress

For the third year in a row, Dr. Ron Fevig has been heavily involved in the High-Altitude Student Platform (HASP) Program. Through HASP, students have an opportunity to design, build, test, and then fly scientific payloads onboard a NASA zero-pressure balloon to an altitude of 40 km. In collaboration with the University of North Florida (UNF), the UND HASP team, led by Dr. Fevig, will fly a gas sensor payload into the stratosphere in May, 2011. In August, the UND-UNF payload passed all thermal vacuum tests at the payload integration site in Palestine, TX. Out of the 11 student payloads that participated in this test, the UND-UNF HASP payload was one of only two that passed the thermal vacuum test on the first try.