In a New Zealand first, three sub-orbital helium space weather balloons were launched into the stratosphere this week, with on-board experiments from students at Otumoetai, Bethlehem, Mount, Tauranga Girls and Tauranga Boys Colleges.

The project - a joint Initiative of local Internet company EOL and Spaceweather.com - was staged in collaboration with Earth to Sky Calculus, a group of visiting American science students doing cutting-edge research in the stratosphere.

EOL Director Terry Coles says the colleges sent an amazing array of experiments. 'Otumoetai College sent petri dishes containing agar nutrient jelly inside a robotic container programme to open once the balloon reached the stratosphere to expose the agar to UV light,” says Terry.

Bethlehem College sent some seeds, Tauranga Girls College sent a mobile phone, Mount Maunganui College sent a baby Pohutukawa tree and Tauranga Boys sent a mix of vegetable seeds.

Headed by United States Astrophysicist Dr Tony Phillips, the Earth to Sky Calculus group has launched over 150 space weather balloons around the world and Terry says this visit was a unique opportunity for local college students.

'To have them here, showing our local students how to do a balloon launch, was an incredible opportunity. Hopefully we can now take these learnings and do our own space weather balloon launches.”

Whilst two of the balloons were successfully retrieved thanks to the efforts of LandSAR and Sensum IoT GPS tracking, the third balloon, carrying the Mount Maunganui College experiments, remains lost off Pukehina beach.

'It made for a bittersweet experience,” says Terry. 'It's a risk we knew we were taking, being in the lap of the wind and weather patterns.

'We remain hopeful it might still drift back into shore. Fortunately, the remaining experiments are back with the college students for some hands-on data analysing.” The findings will be displayed at: www.eol.co.nz

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