Air Force Won’t Shoot Down Wyoming Student Research Balloon

Let's get this out of the way right up front:

NO, the Airforce WILL NOT be shooting down any balloons sent up by these Wyoming high schoolers.

That Chinese balloon story was just bad timing.

Uinta County, Wyoming: 8th-grade teacher Ashley Graham announces to her fifth-hour class that they have won an award. Her class won the NASA TechRise Student Challenge

This program will advance space exploration and enhance knowledge of Earth.

Graham said, “NASA does a contest in conjunction with Future Engineers every year where they do things that are getting to a better understanding of our world or continuing on with space exploration.” (Uinta County Herald). 

Students picked a project and created their experiment with a weight-limit budget.

The class found out that they had won back in December.

Their project focused on how to store seeds in space and the requirements to grow food on Mars or the moon.

The Wyoming class will put their seeds in a plexiglass box that they make themselves, which will be sent on a high-altitude balloon into the stratosphere.

Again, DON'T PANIC! The Air Force will know about the launch.

The goal is to keep the seeds safe in those extreme conditions while they are in space so they can grow later.

The class will meet with people from Aerostar, NASA, and Future Engineers for guidance.

Two balloons will be sent up with 30 projects on each balloon.

Graham’s class will be the first Wyoming winner to go up in a balloon.

The balloons are scheduled to be sent up into the atmosphere sometime this summer.

The Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium sponsors education and research programs in the state of Wyoming in support of NASA missions, serving as a link between citizens of the state and NASA programs. Programs include research fellowships and internships for students at the University of Wyoming and Wyoming community colleges, scholarship programs for community college students in STEM majors, grants for college and university faculty, and educational resources and programs for Wyoming K-12 students and teachers. (Uinta County Herald).