NEAR SPACE ENGINEERING
Moscow HIGH school, Idaho
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All images on this web site have been taken by the Moscow High School Near Space Engineering class or club.

Near Space Engineering used to be a dual enrollment class at Moscow High School (MHS), but it became a club in 2015. Currently, we meet at lunch every Tuesday and after school every Wednesday in room 46, Mr. Blount's room. Students are welcome to join at any point in the year.

In this club the students design, fabricate, conduct, and analyze experiments that are sent up to an altitude of 90k to 100k feet (30k meters) on a high altitude weather balloon. At this altitude, the experiments are above 95% of the earth's atmosphere with a pressure very near zero and a temperature that can reach -65 degrees F (-54 degrees C). In addition to student-built experiments, we send up cameras and temperature and pressure sensors. 

Currently, as of 2018, we are working on a guided parafoil project. This parafoil will replace the parachute that we usually use to land our balloon payloads. The parafoil will enable us to guide a payload to a predetermined landing point, allowing for easier recovery.

News
Updated 8 Jan 2019

We launched on October 20- the parafoil fell to earth in a magnificent spiral of doom. The balloon reached a height of 78,000 feet. Recovery was quick and all parts were successfully re-acquired. 

​We are working towards  launch sometime this spring, including a full-scale parafoil test.

I would like to credit the many people from whom I have gotten information. While I have tweaked most of the ideas and have forgotten from where I've gotten them credit is due to people other than me. A lot of ideas have come from the following three sources. The University of Idaho's RISE program VAST. Montana State's BOREALIS program. And last but not least Paul Verhage has been a great source of information through his articles in both "Nuts and Volts" magazine and his efforts on the Parallax web site. In particular I would like to thank Dr. David Atkinson at UI for his efforts and the Idaho Space Grant.

For information, email us at near.space.mhs@gmail.com, or use the form below.
(none of us are sure yet what happens if you use the form, so email is probably more reliable)