The five web pages linked below lay out my pre-flight preparation. My scientific questions for this exploratory launch are:
- Can I map some part of the Earth’s magnetic field using an inexpensive, Hall effect sensor?
- Can I receive ionizing radiation via an inexpensive Geiger-Muller tube in an altitude-dependent way, while traveling through the troposphere and stratosphere, or will the radiation be all the same at these altitudes?
- Can I notice an abrupt cessation of particulate matter detection as soon as I enter the stratosphere, and an abrupt resumption as soon as I descend back into the troposphere, or will the detections change gradually throughout the entire trip up and then in reverse on the trip down?
- Can an inexpensive, LED-based infrared detector count carbon dioxide concentrations credibly at high altitude, and if so then will there be any changes in carbon dioxide concentration as a function of altitude?
- Will the detection of volatile organic compounds match the detection of carbon dioxide, as is true in the low troposphere, or will they become vastly different in the statosphere?
I would like to launch the balloon and present the data that the payload will collect this autumn, on a new website, for another Physics 600 unit.