Highlander of the Issue: Luke Valencic

HIGHLANDER OF THE ISSUE REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

Senior Luke Valencic sends high altitude balloon into near-space

NOAH BARNES A&E EDITOR

Alarge white balloon drifts through the sky like a birthday party gone terribly wrong. This isn’t just a stray balloon from Party City—there is much more hidden beneath this white latex blimp drifting up through the clouds.

Senior Luke Valencic chose to work on a passion project this summer that reached monumental heights. His love for rockets inspired him to design, build and launch a high altitude balloon that reached an elevation close to 90,000 feet and captured stunning photographs of near space.

“It was probably the start of last summer, or even into the end of junior year, I was building a bunch of model rockets,” Valencic said. “I found it super fascinating the way these things work and the amazing things you can do with not that much money.”

Making a weather balloon is much more complicated than blowing up a balloon and sending it off into the sky. The process is long and arduous, requiring advanced design skills, time and money. The first step in the process is to design the balloon. Then one must acquire the necessary materials to actually build it.

“I started first by researching what these things are and how they work,” Valencic said. “I found that the general system that these weather balloons revolve around is that a balloon will bring a payload up and the balloon will expand as the atmosphere thins because the helium wants to get out of the balloon. The balloon expands so much that it eventually pops, and the whole package comes falling down.”

As one can imagine, a large package falling down from 90,000 feet can pose a danger. To keep the project safe and within the guidelines of the Federal Aviation Administration, Valencic designed a parachute to attach to the payload.

“I didn’t want to cause a threat to anyone or hurt anyone, so that was of big concern to me,” Valencic said. “Between the package and the balloon you [need] a parachute. The parachute will engage once the atmosphere thickens a little bit, and that will bring your package down to where you want it.”

The hardest part about making the weather balloon wasn’t designing the balloon, building it or even finding it. It was dealing with the legal process that posed the greatest obstacle.

“I found out that I needed to make my package fit a couple of guidelines. It has to be under four pounds, the string has to be breakable by 50 pounds of force and there has to be a parachute,” Valencic said.

Motivation was hard to sustain throughout the project, and just as any great mind experiences, there were some slumps. Valencic grappled with the thought of losing all his hard work to the uncontrollable variables that the balloon would encounter on its journey.

“At the end of the day, I was sending a package into the atmosphere tethered to a balloon,” Valencic said. “The GPS could land upside down, and I could never find it. It could hit a tree

I SAW THE UNBELIEVABLE PHOTOS OF EARTH, ITS HORIZON, THE SUN AND SPACE. IT WAS AN INCREDIBLY EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE.”

- LUKE VALENCIC SENIOR

and knock out the GPS. It could land in the middle of a forest. It could land in a body of water. It could destroy all the hard work and significant amount of money that I poured into the project.”

While all the variables can’t be controlled, the weather balloon can be designed to protect the precious cargo that it carries. Valencic designed and placed several sensors and other technology in his balloon to ensure a safe flight and landing.

“I needed a way to find it and track it during the whole flight, so I used a GPS system for that, and then I had some cameras in the actual payload,” Valencic said. “It also has to withstand some pretty tough conditions over 90,000 feet. It gets super cold and windy up there. I had to put some heat warmers in there to keep all the electronics warm. I had to keep the electronics powered with extra batteries and extra memory. I also had some sensors I made and put in there.”

Valencic had some help in navigating the more difficult parts of designing the balloon. Steve Morris, a mentor from the National Association of Rocketry, provided guidance and information in the intricate details of working with technology.

“I had some mentors helping me establish myself in rocketry,” Valencic said. “That was a great foundation to start off of. Other than that, I used a lot of YouTube, a lot of the internet and a bunch of forums.”

After months of preparation, Valencic launched the balloon on Aug. 22, the day before school started. He had to track the package using its GPS signal and drive to the location where the parachute landed. He had already mapped out the flight course of the balloon to ensure it wouldn’t fall into a place where it would be unretrievable.

“It was quite a far drive. I spent probably six hours after I launched it. I recovered it, and then I had to drive home two hours. It was a long process,” Valencic said.

Luck also played a hand in the final retrieval of the balloon. After all the hard work Valencic had put into his project, something as trivial as a simple malfunction in the technology or a faulty landing of the package could render it undiscoverable.

“It was funny—we got super lucky,” Valencic said. “We actually projected the flight course to go right over the Shenandoah National Park and hook back and land somewhere a bit east of there. It ended up going all the way over the Shenandoah National Park, like we thought it would do, and it hooked back around and landed about 200 feet from dense forest where we wouldn’t have been able to recover it. It actually landed in a local’s backyard, and we were able to get it back there.”

When he recovered his package, the culmination of all the hard work, time and money he had poured into his project reached its peak.

“The most satisfying part of the entire thing was when I took out the SD card from the camera and plugged it into my computer,” Valencic said. “I didn’t even get into the car. I was on the hood of my car, and I saw the unbelievable photos and videos of Earth, its horizon, the sun and space. It was an incredibly emotional experience.”

After the initial high of recovering his package and unveiling the stunning photos and videos the cameras inside the balloon captured, Valencic drove back home with his dad. As he traveled home, he realized that the lasting impression of the entire project wasn’t the photos, the videos or even the satisfaction of completing four long months of work.

“I’m doing something that I found a love for,” Valencic said. “I found a love for aerospace engineering through taking on projects that fascinate me yet challenge me every step of the way. I plan to continue pushing myself to discover far greater possibilities. With the results of this project, I hope to inspire others to pursue their ambitions, no matter how impossible the end goal seems.”

prepare for launch — Luke Valencic holds his weather balloon while it inflates with helium on Aug. 22. Valencic’s balloon reached a height of nearly 90,000 feet as it soared over Shenandoah National Park.