AggieSHOT: Student Hands-On Training
AggieSHOT 1
In Summer of 2005 AggieSat1 participated in its first workshop with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Student Hands On Training (SHOT) I workshop. This event was a four day workshop in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado.
The program consisted of two days of teambuilding activities and the build of a BalloonSat payload for flight on a weather balloon to 100,000ft. In attendance was Tim Silverman, as well as Taro Asazuma, Gerardo Iglesias, Quentin Donnellan, Marilee Myres, Paul Lucas, Devin Stancliffe, and John Graves.
The AggieSat team completed two BallonSats for the flight. One was a horizontally oriented camera payload that took pictures of the horizon. The second BalloonSat had a downward looking camera that peered down onto the first of our BalloonSats. Both were an immense success and reached an altitude of 95,000 ft.. The SHOT group was involved in a 4 hour tracking and chase in eastern Colorado that involved a convoy of vans and SUVs with GPS tracking equipment. All payloads were successfully retrieved. Shown below are examples of photographs returned by AggieSat1 BalloonSat A (horizon) & BalloonSat M (downward).
AggieSHOT 2
The SHOT program is a portion of the Nano-Sat 4 competition that is aimed at building teamwork skills and to provide students with an opportunity to have hands-on experience in the launching of a weather balloon containing a student made payload. Over the preceding months students were asked to prepare a small balloon-sat that demonstrated some portion of their Nano-Sat project. Limitations were set on weight, structural integrity, and balloon mounting procedures. This year, unlike in previous SHOT workshops, the schools participating were required to bring their balloon-sat completely constructed. The SHOT II workshop began on June 16th in Boulder, Colorado. After a brief welcoming presentation, each school was challenged to reconstruct a LEGO creation using verbal communication only. One team member from each school was placed in a room with a finished version of the LEGO "spaceship", while the other students were given a box of parts. With the aid of handheld radios each team attempted to re-construct the "spaceship". Following this team building exercise, each school presented their balloon-sat to the group and the Air Force Research Lab representatives asked questions and gave their input on modifications and improvements that could be made to each payload. Early the next morning, the group traveled to a local high school where the balloons were being prepared for launch. Launch procedures were explained and practiced once before launch. The payloads were attached and launch took place around 7:30. Then the chase began. Following the satellites using GPS tracking systems in the cars, at about 1:00 pm we found the payloads roughly 70 miles away. That night, each team gathered data from their payload and prepared a presentation for the next day. Sunday, July 18th began with presentations from each team regarding their payloads performance. Closing comments were made by the SHOT staff and each school headed home with a wonderful experience to their credit.