West Mesa JROTC launches balloon with science payloads

As West Mesa High School Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students prepared to launch a high-altitude balloon in the central courtyard on Monday, their peers could not help but join in on a countdown.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

“Yay!” the crowd exclaimed before a round of applause.

Monday was the first HAB launch at West Mesa in several years.

It was unique for the JROTC students to receive input from students in other departments, including science, math, art, modern languages and social studies.

“It was very cool to see,” said Kodi Pittman, a senior and JROTC battalion commander, whose brother, Jesse Pittman, a junior, also assisted in the HAB project. “It was very stressful for a lot of people, but I am glad it went relatively smoothly.”

The JROTC built the high-altitude balloon and made associated components using a 3D printer before taking the lead in launching it. The HAB was filled with 25 pounds of air and the payload, carrying five scientific experiments, weighed around 12 pounds, said Senior Chief Kirk Nicholson, a West Mesa naval science instructor. A cut-down device would allow the HAB to detach from the payload between 75,000-80,000 feet.

JROTC student Elizabeth Esparza-Clark, a junior, said the payload included marshmallows, bubble wrap, plant seeds and yeast to see what affect a near-space altitude would have on them. The balloon was set to drop after two hours of flying time.

Following the HAB launch, students gathered inside the school to track the balloon’s flight path. Pittman worked the phone with Federal Aviation Administration officials to let them know the HAB would be passing through airspace.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” Pittman said with a laugh.

By 4:30 p.m., a team was en route to recover the HAB, which landed 10 miles west of Galisteo, according to Marine Maj. Mark Hendricks, retired, who volunteered to lead the JROTC students’ mission to near-space.

“It landed short of the mountains, as we hoped,” Hendricks said.

The team was expected to photograph the HAB in the position that it landed on the ground before taking it back to West Mesa, he said.

Hendricks considered the mission a success and called it a moment of “hyper-learning” for his students.

“There’s just so many things to think about and understand how the flight went,” he said. “We’re going to get the vehicle back ... and we’ll get an idea of how it really went. Right now, from the way I look at it, it’s been a great success so far.”

Hendricks said he volunteered to help the West Mesa JROTC students with this “near-Earth mission.”

“I want them to understand that they need to be engaged and involved with what’s happening around them, not just what’s on their phone,” he said. “This is big boy and big girl stuff.”

Nicholson said he wants his students to learn that hard work pays for itself.

“You’re not going to succeed at everything,” he said. “There’s going to be roadblocks at everything we do in life.”

Esparza-Clark, who watched a previous West Mesa balloon launch years ago when her brother was in JROTC, said she was excited “because we worked hard on it.”

“To see it go up and work perfectly was amazing,” she said.

Esparza-Clark said the balloon project taught her about teamwork and hardware circuitry. She added that it was nice for West Mesa to have a moment of unity since it can be hard to come by.

Pittman said he wanted students who attended the high-altitude balloon launch to see that JROTC does a lot of work at West Mesa.

“We have programs here that really develop students into the next generation of workers,” he said.

Mitchell Rekow, a special education teacher, who attended Monday’s event in the courtyard, said the launch was a great way for students to learn about math and science in a hands-on way. He praised JROTC for collaborating with the science department, which sent up pea seeds and yeast. Rekow also said he hoped the HAB sparked “a sense of wonder” in students.

The findings from the HAB will be shared at a STEM fair that is scheduled for Nov. 25 at the school.