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Walsall students aim to beat Red Bull Stratos altitude


HIGH-FLYING students at a Walsall school will be sending three lightweight probes into outer space in a bid to get into the record books.

The out of this world project will see the students from Queen Mary’s Grammar School launch the probes beyond the horizon – with aims to beat the altitude achieved by space jumper Felix Baumgartner.

“We’re also going after a place in the top ten World Amateur Radio High Altitude records,” said Adam Coughlan, maths teacher at the school.

“So far we have written the project proposal, drafted the budget and received permission from the school and from our insurers to run this year’s project.

“We’ve already run our first fundraising event, making £130 in profit, and we are in talks with a local sponsor about a further £200 of funding.”

The probes will be temporarily named Horizon 3, 4 and 5, with three launches planned for the start of May, late June and early July.

Ten students – ranging from pupils in their first year of GCSEs to those in the final year of A Levels – make up the project team and have learned a variety of skills, including computer programming, electronics and video editing. They plan to construct a payload containing a flight computer, sensor array, smart phone and video camera to record the atmospheric conditions, flight path and sights from near space.

And the equipment must be strong enough to handle speeds of up to 400mph during descent, and insulated to keep the electronics working in temperatures below -40 degrees Celsius.

The first launch will carry media equipment and be lifted by a helium-filled weather balloon, with the second and third launches having much lighter payloads, with hydrogen-filled balloons taking the probes to a higher altitude.

Sponsorship and support has already been attracted to the project from several companies. This includes industrial gas and equipment giant BOC Industrial Gases UK, insurers Ecclesiastical Insurance PLC, radio company Yaesu (UK) Ltd, electronics retailer Rapid Electronics Limited, electronics retailer Proto-pic.co.uk, boutique advisory services firm Neos Chronos Limited and CASSiE, the UK Space Mascot.

It is hoped the equipment will reach the dizzying altitude of 39,045 metres – the height skydiver Baumgartner jumped from in October 2012.

Students at Queen Mary’s Grammar School have already proven that the sky isn’t just the limit when they launched two self-designed probes into the stratosphere last year.

One of the devices reached a massive 32 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.

And the team has huge plans for the future.

They plan to extend the project into the local community as part of a joint outreach project with Wolverhampton University.

Mr Coughlan added: “With the support of an engineer or scientist, team members will help local primary and secondary schools design and build their own experiments which we will then launch into the atmosphere using the Horizon 3 platform.

“We’ll also be launching our own experiments and testing new equipment with each launch.”

To keep up to date on the team’s latest news, visit http://www.qmgs.walsall.sch.uk

via – Walsall Advertiser