SCIENCE

Space Science During the Eclipse

The North American solar event was a sky-high opportunity for the Eclipse Ballooning Project.
28 August, 2017
Millions of Americans wanted to witness the August 2017 solar eclipse, which traced a 70-mile wide path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina and was visible almost everywhere across the country.
But for some, being a part of the big celestial event meant participating in the Eclipse Ballooning Project, a citizen science effort of 55 teams that launched special balloons to conduct a range of experiments.

The high-altitude balloons were launched to 30,000 meters, putting them into the stratosphere where scientists gathered data to learn more about the influences of an eclipse shadow on the atmosphere and other questions. These balloons were equipped with video cameras to gather data and also to beam back live near-space images. That was a first for NASA, as they worked with Montana State University researchers who spearheaded the project.
From a high-altitude balloon, one can see the blackness of space, almost like what you could see from the International Space Station.
Angela Des Jardins, solar physicist at Montana State University
But for some, being a part of the big celestial event meant participating in the Eclipse Ballooning Project, a citizen science effort of 55 teams that launched special balloons to conduct a range of experiments.

The high-altitude balloons were launched to 30,000 meters, putting them into the stratosphere where scientists gathered data to learn more about the influences of an eclipse shadow on the atmosphere and other questions. These balloons were equipped with video cameras to gather data and also to beam back live near-space images. That was a first for NASA, as they worked with Montana State University researchers who spearheaded the project.
NASA scientists are experimenting with the bacteria because it resists environmental extremes, and the near-space conditions are more similar to the harsh environment on Mars, for example, than Earth. The atmosphere on the surface of Mars is about 100 times thinner than earth, with cooler temperatures and more radiation more akin to the high-space stratosphere, above the ozone layer of our planet.

"A lot of astrobiology research — simulating, for instance, Mars' surface conditions — is done on Earth's surface in extreme environments like the Dry Valleys of Antarctica," explains David J. Smith, a microbiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. "However, when you work on the surface of the earth, you have a substantial layer of ozone above you that protects from ultraviolet radiation that is really deadly to life. On Mars, you don't have that."
The stratosphere experiments create conditions with low temperatures, low-wavelength ultraviolet radiation, a rarefied atmosphere and the absence of water, Smith said. Attaching the aluminium coupons that carry bacteria on 34 of the eclipse-related balloons made it possible to get better data. It also solved a problem that NASA researchers have in the lab: there is no way to ever simulate sunlight in all its complexity.

Jardins adds another reason for understanding what bacteria do, and that's because NASA projects visit other planets. It's important to know the impact of foreign bacteria humans might introduce on Mars.
Banner image: Dillard Georgia