Up, up and away ...

Sixth-graders in Shawn R. Wilson’s homeroom at Casa Grande Middle School are building a space module to send cameras and a global positioning system into the stratosphere.

The space module, made of Styrofoam packing material, will be carried 80,000 feet above the surface of the earth by a 5-foot weather balloon and returned to earth by parachute. Wilson said 80,000 feet is about three times higher than commercial jets fly.

Angela Mora, 12, said two or more video cameras, a cell phone with global positioning system, flashing LED lights, batteries, hand warmers and a fire alarm will be inside the module.

Gerard D’souza, 9, who is in a different homeroom, drew up his ideas about the module and joined the class to help with the project.“They were really good ideas,” Wilson said.

The weather balloon will be filled with helium and will lift the module so high they will not be able to see it, Angela said. “That’s why we’re using the GPS, because we never know where it’s going to land.”

Wilson plans to send his cell phone up in the module for the GPS tracking.“My wife’s not too happy about having my phone go up,” he added.

The module should land within 30 miles of the launch site, Wilson said, but with space research there is always a possibility of failure. Something could go wrong with the GPS tracker. The module could land on property they cannot enter. A jet could zoom by and suck it into an engine.

The students will use software normally used to find lost cell phones, “Where’s My Droid,” to locate the module after it lands, Wilson said. They should be able to track it to within 100 feet.

They are putting a ringing fire alarm in the module to help find it after it returns to earth, and a U.S. Border Patrol agent, who uses GPS every day, has agreed to help them locate it.

Michael Stanford, 11, said the balloon will burst at 80,000 feet because the air pressure inside the balloon will be so much greater than the pressure outside at that altitude. After it bursts, the fall will open the parachute.

Tyler Johnson, 12, said the LED lights will help them find it after dark. Hot Pockets hand warmers will keep the batteries warm so they don’t freeze in the stratosphere, where temperatures will reach 50 or 60 degrees below zero.

Michael picked up the space module and showed windows cut in the top and bottom for cameras. One camera will look up into the stratosphere. One will look down toward earth. The balloon will be attached to the parachute, which will be attached to the module.

Tyler said they also have to make sure the batteries on the camera and GPS are charged before they send them up or they could wind up with no video or no recovery.

They will test the system with something that looks like fishing line, said Tavian Johnson, 12, tie it to the space module and balloon, put one camera on it and let it go as high as a kite would fly. Wilson said that will probably be next week.

Tyler said they can’t send the module up on a rainy day because the equipment will malfunction if it gets wet. They can’t send it up on a windy day because the balloon could blow away.

The biggest issue now is finding enough helium to fill the balloon, Wilson said. Families donated helium for the low-level test, hand warmers for the batteries and a sewing kit to make the parachute.