HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Jaiden Stark along with his team from UAH's Space Hardware Club, gathered to launch a balloon into the sky. And this is just one of the many experiments they've conducted.
"We're an entirely student run organization…we've been working here with the funding from the Alabama Space Grant Consortium…that's given undergraduate students the opportunity to create real science projects and get them off the ground literally…in the sense that we conduct on the regular basis high altitude experiments with student built hardware," Stark said.
And this balloon will launch these students research to new heights, "our balloons go higher than any commercial aircraft…so you really don't get the opportunity to sample this high in the atmosphere unless you're going to space," Stark said.
This experiment had an audience with students from all around the globe as part of the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Vienna Youth Space Camp Exchange.
The purpose of this camp is to connect international lovers of science and space exploration where they can learn from one another.
Gabriela Bernal is from Mexico and said this launch inspired her.
"Something I didn't realize is that the technology is simple but it's so powerful and it can lead you a lot of data that you can really use to even save lives….and to actually see that it's not difficult, you just have to be curious and you just have to be encouraged about creating new things," Bernal said.
Alphero Tanlianto from Indonesia has a passion for physics and Marian Ordones from Brazil loves computer science. They agree with Bernal that this experience connects them, "that science love can gather us together and we can share ideas, we can share facts and can share knowledge so it's so empowering and it's unique," Bernal said.
Ordones shared that her interest in computer science goes to infinity and beyond.
"I really want in the future to develop computer models to help solve the mysteries that we have out there in the universe but also here on earth…so I really want to develop computer models to help solve climate change and understanding solutions and yeah…I'm really excited about it," Ordones said.
These students will continue to meet with researchers and scientists within the local community for the remainder of the camp and then will head to the Space Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.