Project UV

Project UV is the 2015-2016 Balloons team project to develop effective countermeasures against the UV degradation of latex balloons, in order to increase the potential flight time of future payloads.

The current team leads are Davy Ragland and Yuji Sugimoto.

Chemical protection

Preliminary data

Because ultra violet radiation physically degrades the polymers within the latex, a chemical solution may elongate its lifespan. A preliminary test was done with a set of various chemical coatings, balloon types, and strech values. However, the test had to be stopped for winter break, so the degradation point of some samples could only be predicted, not verified. Nevertheless, the initial results seem optimistic.

SSI-28

24Km view

SSI-28 data

SSI-28 data

In order to collect data on the levels of ultra violet A and B present at different altitudes, a sensor for each UV type was launched on SSI-28. From the data, it can be concluded that there is much more UV A than UV B, and it does in fact increase with altitude, reaching a max value of 1323 microwatts/cm^2 for UV A and 292 microwatts/cm^2 for UV B. In addition, there is a lot of noise in the values, with a corresponding oscillation of values, which is due to the sensor being on one side, and the payload spinning during its flight. Thus, the value where the sun is directly facing the latex would correspond to the high part of the wave.

Chemical concentration

As result of the positive results of the chemical protection tests, a new experiment will be done indoors with UV LEDs that emit 365 manometers. This will be to control for and calculate the exact amount of UV that the latex is being exposed to. The independent variable will be the concentration of chemical spray per area, in order determine the ideal amount to apply onto the balloon.

Gallery

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  Project UV data
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  Project UV data