{"id":202886,"date":"2024-08-29T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T23:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=202886"},"modified":"2024-08-29T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T23:12:23","slug":"nasa-balloon-launch-climate-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/08\/29\/nasa-balloon-launch-climate-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: <abbr>NASA<\/abbr> balloon launches with Maui <abbr>HS<\/abbr> students\u2019 climate experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_30368\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gQdHFjBsOcQ?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Cubes in Space RB 9 Launch on NASA&#039;s Salter Test Flight Mission - 22 August 2024\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>An experiment to measure how plastic degrades and releases greenhouse gasses took to the skies on a high-altitude balloon on August 22. It was created by a team of four Maui High School students, under the guidance of University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> professors.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment was launched into space from <abbr title=\"National Aeronautics and Space Administration\">NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in New Mexico and the students watched the live stream broadcast from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_202890\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-202890\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/manoa-math-maui-students-high-altitude-balloon-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"large balloon in space\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-202890\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/manoa-math-maui-students-high-altitude-balloon-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/manoa-math-maui-students-high-altitude-balloon-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/manoa-math-maui-students-high-altitude-balloon.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-202890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still photo of the high-altitude balloon launch, courtesy of Cubes in Space livestream broadcast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The experiment was selected for the flight by the program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cubesinspace.com\/\">Cubes in Space<\/a>, in partnership with <abbr>NASA<\/abbr>. The students have worked with professors and graduate students from the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/math.hawaii.edu\/wordpress\/\">Department of Mathematics<\/a> on it since November 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It wasn\u2019t until the students watched that massive balloon ascend, carrying their own experiment into the stratosphere, that the true magnitude of their accomplishment really sank in for them,&rdquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa mathematics Professor Monique Chyba. &ldquo;For these students from Maui, who\u2019ve faced such a challenging year, this rare opportunity wasn\u2019t just a scientific milestone&#8212;it was a powerful reminder of their resilience and potential.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The payload is expected to return within the coming weeks and the students\u2019 will then finalize their research findings.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/06\/03\/maui-students-climate-research-nasa\/\">Maui <abbr title=\"High School\">HS<\/abbr> students\u2019 climate research to take flight with <abbr>NASA<\/abbr><\/a>, June 3, 2024<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As global plastic demand increases, so do its climate impacts since <abbr title=\"Ultraviolet\">UV<\/abbr> radiation causes plastics to emit greenhouse gasses such as ethylene. This study, using a stratospheric balloon at 120,000 feet, measures emissions from short-term sunlight exposure, unlike previous long-term studies. If the students\u2019 hypothesis is correct, weakened atmospheric conditions will allow more <abbr>UV<\/abbr> radiation through, increasing greenhouse gas emissions from dumped plastics, thereby worsening climate change.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment is funded through a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/02\/nsf-rapid-grants-maui\/\">National Science Foundation RAPID grant awarded to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa in the wake of the deadly Maui wildfires<\/a>. Along with co-principal investigator Chyba on the team are <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/coe.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Education<\/a> Professor and project principal investigator Tara O\u2019Neill, and co-principal investigators <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Department of Mathematics Associate Professor Yuriy Mileyko and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui College Assistant Professor Thomas Blamey. They met with the students in person on Maui and over Zoom in the spring 2024 semester to develop a proposal and on-time submission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This study, using a stratospheric balloon at 120,000 feet, measures emissions from short-term sunlight exposure, unlike previous long-term studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[95,308,1466,554,568,9,60,56],"class_list":["post-202886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-college-of-education","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-mathematics","tag-natural-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-maui-college","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202893,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202886\/revisions\/202893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}