Danny launched his first candle balloon by a golf course with some of his friends when he was only 15. He tells us there are probably 100 bags in the desert from those early launches. After his friends failed to recover their HAB with a GPS spot tracker and camera, Danny was inspired to model flights in order to better predict their behavior. Finally, on the next try, they were successful and got some awesome pictures of snow. Today, he still uses these beautiful shots of the snow-covered landscape in scientific presentations.

Together with some of his co-workers, Danny tried something new in 2012 with a solar balloon. Amazingly, one flight went over the Atlantic Ocean. They attached 9 bottles with their contact information, and 7/9 were recovered in about a month.

Soon, Danny started graduate school, and one day while checking email he discovered a NASA solicitation for the high altitude student platform (HASP). This is when he had the idea to combine his graduate research with HABs. Engineering near-space craft was still marked by difficulties. For example, his first balloon was released by accident. The second experiment was launched without a balloon, sort of. Instead of ordering a latex balloon, he filled garbage bags with helium, and it worked. In fact, the results of that experiment were so interesting, they were later published.

On the HASP, Danny planned with his team to fly an infrasound microphone and just record whatever was up there. Already, a host of natural and anthropogenic sounds have been identified from recordings on or near the ground. These include sounds from lightning, earthquakes, volcanoes, forest fires, nuclear/chemical/mining explosions, space- and air-craft flight, and even industrial exhaust. Would these show up in the stratosphere?

Unexpectedly, not only did they see typical sound spectra, but the spectrogram showed interesting, unknown signals. Importantly, the signals were different from those recorded on earth's surface. The really cool thing was that they saw the same mysterious signals from work done in the '60s with a completely different approach and different sensors. This fact, that two different methods were showing similar things, suggested what they were hearing was real and not just artifacts from their method. In fact, this year Danny will continuing tests to ensure what he is hearing is not due to the HASP craft but real acoustics from the stratosphere.

Now, what Danny needs most is more data. However, there are several obstacles to overcome. Basically, if there was an easy way to build and fly the specialized microphones, more people could collect a lot more data. Currently, Danny's group has data from the accent to 93k ft over one area during one flight. Even the descent of this one was too noisy to make much sense.

More data would first help confirm what can be heard from a free flying balloon in the stratosphere. Then, further questions could begin to be answered. How do the sounds change over different terrain? Do they change with changing weather conditions and to what degree? How do they change over seasons or even during the day/night cycle? How many of those mysterious spectra can we tease apart and understand what causes them?

The ability to design and construct infrasound microphones is limited. While the mics are not proprietary, there is little documentation and they are not mass produced and thus not for sale. Ideally, the units could fly on cheaper solar balloons that would provide longer flight times. For this to work, they would need to be light. Currently, because the study of infrasound grew out of seismology, the data loggers were designed for use on the ground and are too heavy for most amateur balloons (700 grams).

Danny is excited by the possibilities of solar balloons. He says there are many records to break within reach of amateur HAB engineers. A more vibrant solar balloon community could help drive the innovation necessary for creating cheaper, more robust solar balloons. And this would allow for the increased sampling he needs for collecting more data. Danny specifically wants to challenge the HAB community to launch a camera and GPS on a solar balloon to break his record of 72k ft. We need to be going bigger and higher with cheaper balloons. Amateurs could really contribute to cutting edge research by improving solar balloons.

Danny's work has been featured here and on his blog/website. You can see many videos of his flights and sound spectra on his youtube channel and you can follow him on Twitter!

On June 2nd 2015, Huan and Dustin from HAB.education got a chance to speak with leaders of the fastest growing organization at Stanford, the Stanford Space Initiative (SSI). Founded in 2013, SSI has grown to become the largest project-based group on campus. Shortly after starting our conversation, it was readily apparent how they are serious about developing the future leaders of our space industry.

We think they will do it.

Within just a few years, they have already accomplished so much by building CubeSats, rockets, and HABs–all while inspiring others in those communities. Now, their members are getting internships and jobs at top aerospace companies.

Quickly into our interview, SSI's Media Manager pulled in the reins on the conversation. "We can talk tech all day, but what is it you really want to accomplish here?" he said. We quickly caught on; this group is not simply about geeking out to the coolest, newest spacecraft and high altitude equipment.

What followed was a discussion of the pros and cons of hosting a group like SSI through a student-led organization. They reported that dealing with the bureaucracy of a collegiate institution was challenging, but they are hopeful that this "legitimization" and backing from their university helps with future growth. We talked about the Saint Louis region and possible interested parties, such as Boeing, the Saint Louis Science Center, and some of our local universities and K-12 schools. Here at HAB.education, we are focused on education, and our region looks fertile for exploration.

SSI has multiple technology development groups that have produced impressive results. We are particularly intrigued by their long distance high altitude balloon flights using latex. Typically, a launch consists of a flight time between 1 and 3 hours, climaxing with the burst of the latex balloon. This occurs when its internal pressure overcomes the reducing external pressure during assent. At the time of our interview, SSI had recently launched SSI-21, the first full-systems test of their valve and ballast system used to regulate altitude, thus preventing a burst or premature landing. They were referring to it with the portmanteau ValBal.

"With longer distance flights and more expensive payloads, there is a greater need and difficulty for recovery after the flight," Dustin said. It would be helpful if the HAB community had a way of leveraging the national network of scientists and hobbyists to recover these payloads. For example, SSI could launch their balloon in California and terminate the flight over one of many possible recovery zones. There, a group or local individual from the community could recover and return the expensive payload.

To appreciate the HAB community, check out ARHAB's (Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloon website) that collects and posts mission information such as launch location and time, tracking frequencies, and other mission owner data. Also, habhub has awesome tools for flight prediction, tracking, and communication with other HAB enthusiasts. Despite these terrific resources, as of yet, we at HAB.education know of no recovery network within the community. As our members geographically stretch from Southern Iowa, through central Missouri, to Southeastern Illinois, we capture at least a portion of the Midwest. Additionally, friends in Minnesota to Texas allow for a more or less contiguous band of help in the middle of the country. We hope we can be of service and look forward to learning more about SSI's efforts.