Background of the ASCEND Program
"ASCEND!" (Aerospace STEM Challenges to Educate New Discoverers) is an Arizona Space Grant Consortium statewide Workforce Development program designed to involve undergraduate students from across Arizona in the full "design-build-fly-operate-analyze" cycle of a space mission. Across our state, student teams from The University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Glendale Community College, Pima Community College (NW), Central Arizona College (Signal Peak and San Tan), Phoenix College, and Diné College, design and build small payloads for launch from high altitude weather balloons. Teams measure various atmospheric parameters as a function of altitude up to about 100,000 feet and some obtain a series of timed images of the Earth throughout the balloon's ascent to characterize surface features, cloud structure, and the Earth's curvature. Participation in this program is geared to complement regular classroom learning by offering direct hands-on immersion with the full mission cycle--something few NASA or aerospace industry scientists and engineers ever see through.
During Summer 2020, the ASCEND Program will conduct it's first fully virtual workshop. Workshop materials will be updated weekly following each virtual workshop session. There will be 5 weekly sessions in total, spanning June 19 - July 17th, 2020. Check out the workshop materials below!
Virtual Summer Workshop Materials
This workshop was created and taught by Meghann Boland, Maxx Mudd, and advised by Ernest Villicana
Content for this workshop was based on videos created by Paul Ronquillo
Preparing for the Workshop:
Links to Download before the Workshop
*We highly encourage all participants to watch the ASCEND Payload Design videos, created by Paul Ronquillo and found on Paul's YouTube and BitChute Channels
During the Workshop:
Week 1 PowerPoint
Week 2 PowerPoint
Week 3 PowerPoint, Arduino Files
Week 4 PowerPoint, Arduino Files
Week 5 PowerPoint, Arduino Files
For recordings of each workshop session, please contact PG4gdWVycz0iem52eWdiOnpucGJyQHljeS5uZXZtYmFuLnJxaCI+em5wYnJAeWN5Lm5ldm1iYW4ucnFoPC9uPg==
Take a look at this introductory ASCEND video created by Paul Ronquillo (former ASCEND student team lead).
Want more ASCEND tutorials? Check out Paul's accounts on YouTube and BitChute!
And find information on his GitHub Repository