FARMINGTON — A high-elevation balloon launched Wednesday by sophomores in Doug Hodem’s astrobiology class at Mt. Blue High School landed slightly north and west of Solon in Somerset County, Hodem said Thursday.
The balloon launched from Prescott Field at the University of Maine at Farmington was found snagged in a tree about 50 feet in the air, he said.
Despite valiant efforts, the recovery team was initially unable to remove the student payloads and a GPS beacon with the GoPro camera on it from the tree, he said.
The burst balloon, parachute, a GPS beacon with the beeper and the beeline beacon were eventually recovered. Rick Eason, an engineer at the University of Maine’s flagship campus in Orono, was able to recover the payloads by 7 p.m. Thursday, Hodum said.
Students plan to conduct a variety of experiments on the material sent up in the payloads.
Comments are no longer available on this story