AERO 2022 495 and 740 - Fall Launch
Noah Eckert, center, and Christian Henderson, right, both undergraduates in aerospace engineering, inflate a balloon with helium to carry one of four cubesats into the stratosphere when they launch from the Plumb Lake County Park near Sturgis, Michigan on Tuesday morning, December 6, 2022. Eckert and Henderson are both students in one of Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor James Cutler’s classes. In the background is Tran Anh Nguyen, a former student of Cutler’s who graduated in December 2021 and now works as an engineer for the University of Michigan.
The goal of the courses is to give students the opportunity to design and build complex satellite-like flight vehicles. The high-altitude balloons, which are filled with helium, rise into the stratosphere emulating some key aspects of spaceflight. According to Graduate Student Instructor Gage Bergman, "The stratosphere is an extreme environment, it experiences vast temperature differences, and also requires students to develop robust and reliable systems because once a balloon is released, there is no way to retrieve it - just like actual spaceflight.” Bergman is a masters student in aerospace engineering.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing
AERO 2022 495 and 740 - Fall Launch
Noah Eckert, center, and Christian Henderson, right, both undergraduates in aerospace engineering, inflate a balloon with helium to carry one of four cubesats into the stratosphere when they launch from the Plumb Lake County Park near Sturgis, Michigan on Tuesday morning, December 6, 2022. Eckert and Henderson are both students in one of Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor James Cutler’s classes. In the background is Tran Anh Nguyen, a former student of Cutler’s who graduated in December 2021 and now works as an engineer for the University of Michigan.
The goal of the courses is to give students the opportunity to design and build complex satellite-like flight vehicles. The high-altitude balloons, which are filled with helium, rise into the stratosphere emulating some key aspects of spaceflight. According to Graduate Student Instructor Gage Bergman, "The stratosphere is an extreme environment, it experiences vast temperature differences, and also requires students to develop robust and reliable systems because once a balloon is released, there is no way to retrieve it - just like actual spaceflight.” Bergman is a masters student in aerospace engineering.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing