Students' Experiments To Fly By Glider To the Edge of Space

techmage writes: In 2002 Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson set the altitude record for a glider climbing to 42,000 feet in the Perlan I. This year the Perlan II glider will attempt to reach over 90,000 feet. Carried aboard will be be 10 science experiments from students participating in a Teachers in Space contest. Some of these experiments push the boundaries of what can be done at the K-12 level. This news article has a lot more detail on what these kids are sending.

Comments

Saftey & Planning

[ebonum]

I'm a licensed pilot. If I was preparing to fly a glider twice as high as the previous record, I'm not sure I would want anything on my plane not 100% required for my flight. The first concern is weight. The second concern is that I really don't need anything extra to worry about. There are already enough risks involved. I'm not an expert on the flight envelops for gliders at this kind of altitude, but I'm going to guess that the plane will be at the knife edge between stalling and over speed. Gliders at 10,000 feet on a hot summer day get bounced around. A lot. They have shoulder straps for a reason. Storms have been known to remove their wings. Where there is powerful rising air, falling air can't be too far away. At 70, 80, 90,000 feet, a plane with huge, long wings might struggle to deal with the air currents.

An unmanned balloon can hit 90,000 feet and carry a small payload. There are other ways to get these experiments to the edge of space.

Re:Saftey & Planning

[vyvepe]

They do not want to catch a raising column of hot air (thermal). They want to catch a wave downwind of a mountain. The waves reach considerably higher than the mountain which generates them. Thermals are typically very bumpy. Waves are typically extremely steady. Only their middle part (the rotor) is bumpy but you can avoid that. This should be quite a steady flight.

Re:Where will the speed come from?

[Tx]

You implied that you read the wikipedia article; well, it explains the specific weather phenomenon that is to be used to reach above 90k feet.

"Standing waves normally do not extend above the tropopause at temperate latitudes. A strong west wind usually decreases above the tropopause, which has been shown to cap or prevent the upward propagation of standing mountain waves. However, at the outer boundary of the polar vortex, in winter, the stratospheric polar night jet exists. Its wind field can join with the wind field of the polar jet stream. The result is a wind which increases with altitude through the tropopause and upward to 100,000 feet or above. When this conjunction of winds occurs over a barrier mountain, standing mountain waves will propagate through that entire altitude range."

And once that altitude is reached, presumably if the standing mountain wave can get you up to that altitude, it can also keep you up there, if you can ride it. Again, from the wiki page;

"A sailplane can maneuver precisely at very high altitudes to traverse or remain relatively stationary in a desired portion of the wave structure, as the structure is determined in flight."

Re:The only creed I need is

[camperdave]

The edge of space is 328,000 feet (100km). They're only going up 90,000 feet. That's less than a third of the way. "Oh, look! I'm on the second floor. I'm on the edge of space!"