FIRST LEGO League Team 90 Uses Data as Part of “Climate Connections” Project
To help commemorate the 10th anniversary of LEGO MINDSTORMS, Nevada Space Grant, the University of Nevada-Reno, National Instruments, The Energizer Battery Company, and the LEGO MINDSTORMS Team conducted the High Altitude LEGO Extravaganza (H.A.L.E). On July 29, 2008, H.A.L.E. successfully carried nine LEGO MINDSTORMS-based payloads to the Earth’s stratosphere. Two balloons carried payloads from the USA, Taiwan, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Denmark to an altitude just over 99,500 feet.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Team 90 from Reston, Virginia took part in the H.A.L.E. mission, and chose to focus on global warming knowing it would be a great fit for their FLL research project. The team designed and built a robot to measure UV radiation as a function of altitude. The high-altitude balloon was a way to measure a constant increase in UV and how UV blocking materials hold up under these conditions. The NXT was designed not only to data log the UV sensor readings, but to rotate UV filters in position as well as control the payload heater with a temperature sensor. The team later used their data as part of their FLL Climate Connections project. The team identified an increasing UV index over the years in the Northern Virginia and D.C. areas. Their solution focused on the effectiveness of various sun blocking materials both now and in the future as the UV index continues to increase in these areas.
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