Hello All!   
      
   Rubber Chicken Flies into Solar Radiation Storm    
      
   April 19, 2012:  Last month, when the sun unleashed the most intense radiation   
   storm since 2003, peppering satellites with charged particles and igniting   
   strong auroras around both poles, a group of high school students in Bishop,   
   California, knew just what to do.    
      
   They launched a rubber chicken.    
      
   The students inflated a helium balloon and used it to send the fowl, named   
   "Camilla," to an altitude of 120,000 ft where she was exposed to high-energy   
   solar protons at point blank range.    
      
   Camilla at ~124,800 feet on March 3, 2012. Credit: Earth to Sky-Bishop CA.   
   [mpeg4 movies:launch, apex, chaos, landing]    
      
   "We equipped Camilla with sensors to measure the radiation," says Sam Johnson   
   (age 16) of Bishop Union High School's Earth to Sky student group1. "At the   
   apex of our flight, the payload was above 99% of Earth's atmosphere."    
      
   Launching a rubber chicken into a solar storm might sound strange, but the   
   students had good reason: They're doing an astrobiology project.    
      
   Sunspot AR1429, the source of the solar storms of March 2012. "Later this   
   year, we plan to launch a species of microbes to find out if they can live at   
   the edge of space," explains team member Rachel Molina (age 17). "This was a   
   reconnaissance flight."    
      
   Many space enthusiasts are already familiar with Camilla. She's the mascot of   
   NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. With help from her keeper, Romeo Durscher   
   of Stanford University, Camilla corresponds with more than 20,000 followers on   
   Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, filling them in on the latest results from   
   NASA's heliophysics missions.    
      
   "Camilla's trip to the stratosphere2 gave us a chance to talk to thousands of   
   people about the radiation storm," says Durscher.    
      
   On the outside of her space suit (knitted by Cynthia Coer Butcher from Blue   
   Springs, Missouri), Camilla wore a pair of radiation badges, the same kind   
   medical technicians and nuclear workers wear to assess their dosages.    
      
   Bishop CA students launch Camilla on March 3, 2012. [movies: above and below]   
   Camilla actually flew twice--once on March 3rd before the radiation storm and   
   again on March 10th while the storm was in full swing. This would give the   
   students a basis for comparison.    
      
   On March 3rd, during the calm before the storm, the Earth to Sky team assisted   
   by a local class of 5th graders attached Camilla to the payload, inflated the   
   balloon, and released the "stack" (balloon, parachute and payload) into a   
   cloudless blue sky just before local noon.    
      
   "It was a beautiful lift-off," says Amelia Koske-Phillips (age 15), the team's   
   payload manager and "launch boss."    
      
   During the two and a half hour flight, Camilla spent approximately 90 minutes   
   in the stratosphere where temperatures (-40 to -60 C) and air pressures (1%   
   sea level) are akin to those on the planet Mars. The balloon popped, as   
   planned, at an altitude of about 40 km and Camilla parachuted safely back to   
   Earth. The entire payload was recovered intact from a landing site in the Inyo   
   Mountains.    
      
   The payload, a modified department store lunchbox, carried four cameras, a   
   cryogenic thermometer, and two GPS trackers. Seven insects and two dozen   
   sunflower seeds also rode along to test their response to near-space travel.   
   The seeds were a variety known to gardeners as "Sunspot" (Helianthus annuus).    
      
   One week later, on March 10th, the storm was underway, and the students   
   repeated the experiment.    
      
   Camilla flew into one of the strongest proton storms in years. The source of   
   the radiation was sunspot AR1429, which unleashed more than 50 solar flares   
   during the first two weeks of March. At the peak of the storm, from March 7th   
   through 10th, charged particles hitting Earth's upper atmosphere deposited   
   enough heat in only three days to power every residence in New York City for   
   two years. At the moment of Camilla's launch on March 10th, Earth-orbiting   
   satellites reported proton counts ~30,000 times normal.    
      
   The helium balloon pops at the apex of the flight on March 10, 2012. Credit:   
   Earth to Sky-Bishop CA [slow motion movie] [Youtube: Chaos at 119,000 feet]    
   "The profile of the second flight was almost identical to the first--perfect   
   for our experiment," adds Johnson. "We recovered the payload from a landing   
   site near Deep Springs, California."    
      
   The 5th grade assistants are now planting the sun flower seeds to see if   
   radiated seeds produce flowers any different from seeds that stayed behind on   
   Earth. They're also pinning the corpses of the insects-none survived-to a   
   black "Foamboard of Death," a rare collection of bugs that have been to the   
   edge of space.    
      
   Meanwhile, Camilla's radiation badges have been sent to a commercial   
   laboratory for analysis.    
      
   The students say they are looking forward to the data and maybe-just   
   maybe-sending Camilla back for more.    
      
   Educators are encouraged to follow Camilla on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.   
      
      
   Author:Dr. Tony Phillips| Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit:   
   Science@NASA   
      
   More Information    
   1Earth to Sky is group of high school and middle school students in Bishop,   
   California, mentored by Science@NASA's Dr. Tony Phillips. In addition to   
   launching balloons to explore the stratosphere, they are also building a small   
   satellite (a CubeSat) to fly through and photograph auroras over Earth's   
   pole.  They hope to launch the satellite in late 2012.    
      
   2This isn't Camilla's first adventure. The chicken has also flown on a NASA   
   T-38 training jet, traveled onboard a helium balloon to the stratosphere over   
   Louisiana, visited the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City,   
   Russia, and visited hundreds of elementary students in classrooms around the   
   country.   
       
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LA - (1:3828/7)