Payload retrieved

Black Hills National Forest Bearlodge Fire recently went on a recovery mission in the Bearlodge Mountains to retrieve a weather balloon. Through a Wyoming NASA Space Grant, Campbell County High School Earth Science class, taught by Trish Kuberra, had launched and tracked a weather balloon to apply changing atmospheric conditions to student built experiments.

Students were challenged to design and build an experiment that tapped into changing atmospheric conditions as the balloon either ascended or descended to drive an energy transformation. The STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) project helped students develop an understanding of the relationships between Earth's spheres and the energy that drives them.

An education company called Stratostar provided the balloon, its various sensors and the tracking software that mapped and monitored the balloon data.

After trying to retrieve the balloon without success due to darkness, snow cover and closed gates, the Bearlodge Forest Service office received a call from Ms. Kuberra explaining the situation and forest GPS coordinates were provided. Bearlodge Fire set out cross-country to retrieve the balloon remnants.

"The information the teacher provided was very precise and I was able to drive a tracked utv directly to where the balloon had fallen," said Don Doten, Bearlodge Fire.

"It's not every day you get sent out to help a high school with a weather balloon recovery. It was great to be able to help this class out on a project they had invested so much time, energy and resources in."