"Food in Flight" via High Altitude Balloon Experiments in Technology (HABET) Flight

The Iowa State University Base Program under Dr. Benjamin Ahn and Professor Matthew Nelson conducted an outreach event in coordination with the Iowa State University Extension office, Make to Innovate, Iowa 4-H, and the Stratospheric Ballooning Association to encourage STEM education through high altitude ballooning. The activity was “Foods in Space” where certain state fair foods were voted on to ride up to well over 36 km (120,000 ft) up in the air. The general public was asked to vote on which state fair foods we should send-up. The winners were the corn dogs, cheese curds, and chocolate chip cookies. Samples of each of these foods were then put into the spacecraft and launched from the Iowa State Fairgrounds at Des Moines, IA.

The state fair foods were then subjected to temperatures as low as -12 F, and pressure and humidity readings close to zero. The spacecraft traveled to over 36 km (120,000 feet) which is in the stratosphere of our atmosphere. The balloon used is designed to burst at a maximum altitude and the spacecraft then returns to Earth on a parachute. The spacecraft was successfully recovered by students in the Make to Innovate program that also launched the spacecraft from the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

After the launch, people were asked what they thought would happen to the foods. Many thought they would get cold and some thought they might expand or even explode! What did happen with the foods? The video that was taken during the entire journey and the result was, not much. The foods did in fact freeze and once recovered ice crystals were still present in the corn dog and cheese curds. The very dry conditions also dried out the foods as well. But there was no explosion and the video showed only a slight expansion with the corn dog sample.

The Iowa 4-H with ISU Extension also did additional activities with K-12 students explaining how these balloons work and some of the science behind the balloon flights and our atmosphere. These activities were part of the base program’s goal of encouraging STEM education. This launch was the first of a partnership that the base program plans to continue and use to continue STEM education outreach in the state of Iowa.

Images before the flight, an edited version of the flight video, and the collected data during the flight are presented below.