{"id":139959,"date":"2021-05-21T10:32:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T14:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=139959"},"modified":"2026-02-19T09:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:28:57","slug":"at-garcelon-field-a-failed-balloon-launch-in-name-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/21\/at-garcelon-field-a-failed-balloon-launch-in-name-only\/","title":{"rendered":"At Garcelon Field, a failed balloon launch in name only"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a fine recent May morning, a meticulously prepared weather balloon headed skyward from Garcelon Field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the balloon lifted off, its payload of scientific equipment went unlifted, instead staying firm on terra firma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Donahue
During the High Altitude Ballooning Club’s launch on May 15, Jackson Donahue ’22 of Princeton, N.J, and Christopher Barker ’21 of Burlington, Vt., evaluate their balloon\u2019s buoyancy after filling it with helium. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s a fiery SpaceX Starship crash in Texas, or a weather balloon taking off without its payload, the scene seems to have failure written all over it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is the season of graduation speeches, with their tried and true themes of triumph over failure. So we know that to err is more than human. It’s the required path to success.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, a saying by Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920, has been shared at many commencements talks about failure. Paraphrased, he said that failure is not a sin, but low aim is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
\"Members

Members of the High Altitude Ballooning Club lay out their gear on May 15 in preparation for a launch from Garcelon Field. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Christopher

Christopher Barker \u201821 opens the launch sequence document an hour before launch to notify FAA that the launch is on schedule. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Preparing

Preparing the payload, Matt Clayton ’22 (left) of Wayland, Mass., and Max Bartely ’22 (right) of Presque Isle, Maine, perform tests before attaching the GPS. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"The

The payload capsule, a hollow styrofoam sphere, had high- and low-tech gear, the latter being hand warmers to help keep the high-tech gear running in cold high-altitude conditions. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Barker

Barker wrestles the helium tank, filled with 200 cubic feet of helium from Maine Oxy, into position. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Barker

Barker and Jackson Donahue \u201822 of Princeton, N.J., prepare the connection to deliver helium gas to the balloon. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Donahue

Donahue and Barker attach a counterweight to the balloon in preparation for removing the gas hose. “The counterweight makes the balloon easier to hold as it builds lift.” explains Barker.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"These

These pressure gauges were actually used as a counterweight to the inflated balloon during preparations. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"From

From left, Donahue, Barker, and Tara Ellard ’22 of Brewster, Mass., assess the balloon as it\u2019s being filled with helium gas. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Donahue

Donahue and Barker evaluate the balloon\u2019s buoyancy after filling it with helium. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"As

As Alex Brovender ’21 of Boxford, Mass., and Donahue watch, Henry Raff ’22 of Hailey, Idaho, releases the attached counterweight. At right,Barker reads the positive lift measurement on the brass newton meter and documents the value for post-launch analysis. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"The

The gas hose removed, Barker ties off the balloon. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"It

It is customary to include an explanatory statement like this on a high-altitude balloon in case it\u2019s found before the club members arrive. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"The

The high-altitude balloon takes off…. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"It\u2019s

After the balloon takes off without its payload, it’s a disappointing moment for the club. But not a failure. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 1988, then-President Hedley Reynolds, speaking at his final Bates Commencement, said that fear of failure is a more debilitating condition than any kind of physical fear: \u201cIt is blind, unbalanced fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade ago, Harvard scholar Evelyn Hammonds, now a Bates trustee, told Bates seniors at Commencement that the road to self-transformation is paved with failure. \u201cYou will <\/em>fail \u2014 you should<\/em> fail,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, biology researcher Bonnie Bassler said that achievement means \u201cjumping in and trying your best\u201d despite fear of failure. \u201cWhen I don\u2019t want to do something, I say, \u2018No, thank you.\u2019 When I consider not doing something because I\u2019m scared that I could fail, I say, \u2018Yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christopher
Christopher Barker \u201821 opens the launch sequence document an hour before launch to notify FAA that the launch is on schedule. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And at Commencement 2019, Senior Speaker Claire Naughton explored failure while sharing a lesser-known part of the Icarus myth: the warning not to fly too low.  \u201cIf you never push yourself, you can never fail,\u201d she said. \u201cBut isn\u2019t it a worse failure to never know what you really could have done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to last Saturday\u2019s balloon launch, and post-launch words from Christopher Barker \u201821, president of the student High Altitude Ballooning Club, to his club members and supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barker is a double major in physics and studio art whose ceramics are on display at the Bates College Museum of Art as part of the Senior Thesis Exhibition<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Members
Members of the High Altitude Ballooning Club lay out their gear on May 15 in preparation for a launch from Garcelon Field. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongratulations to every one of our launch coordinators and system engineers,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cI am incredibly proud of the successes we had with our launch. We launched a friggin\u2019 balloon!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ticked off what went right. \u201cWe coordinated with the FAA a time and place to launch. We prepared a splendid payload fully equipped with cameras, sensors, GPS, and flight patch stickers. And we obtained 200 cubic feet of helium and set it up on a tarp on Garcelon on a beautiful day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of the splendid payload encapsulated the way student groups, whether the Gospelaires or the balloon club, sustain themselves: by passing along know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Barker
Barker wrestles the helium tank, filled with 200 cubic feet of helium from Maine Oxy, into position. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Due to the pandemic cutting short last year\u2019s on-campus experience as well as other factors, Barker is the only member of this year\u2019s club who has experienced a club balloon launch, back in November 2019, before going abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it helped that he could be in contact with club alumni like Morgan Baxter \u201820, now with BlackLynx, a scientific research firm in the tech field. \u201cHe helped out with questions,\u201d as did 2019\u201320 president Maddie Hallowell \u201820, and club founder Ian Wax \u201819. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMorgan mailed us an additional mainboard with sensors to put in the payload alongside our own data-collection board and sensors. He wanted to test the board he has been working on and since he had been helping us out it was the perfect opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"From
From left, Donahue, Barker, and Tara Ellard \u201822 of Brewster, Mass., assess the balloon as it\u2019s being filled with helium. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the end, a \u201cfickle knot\u201d was the mission\u2019s undoing, he said. It\u2019s easy to focus on that, he said, but \u201cremember that in the same day as the Bates launch, another launch on the other side of the globe had a bump of their own<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bumps feel bad, but they\u2019re merely a reminder, he said, that \u201cscience is iterative, a process of building, failing, and rebuilding. We truly are innovators, creating something from nothing in the basement of Pettengill Hall,\u201d where the club does its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barker takes a page from Elon Musk, who famously said that \u201cfailure is<\/em> an option\u201d after setting up SpaceX, his private rocketry firm. \u201cIf you are not failing, you are not innovating.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The gas hose removed, Barker ties off the balloon. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before the launches, explains Barker, Musk \u201clays out a goal, usually about some part in the launch sequence. So then, they will do the full launch; the thing will eventually come down and crash land and explode. And everyone thinks it\u2019s a failure. But it\u2019s not, because he got the stats he needed for that iterative process of making a spaceship that works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s SpaceX Starship is intended to be the first fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle. After the first of four failed test flights of a Starship prototype, on Dec. 8, 2020, Musk said the mission nevertheless provided \u201call the data we needed.\u201d And on May 5, the Starship aced its test flight and landing.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The
But minus its payload, left behind because of a “fickle knot” that came undone. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As Barker says about the Bates club\u2019s launches, \u201cIt\u2019s especially fun when things don’t go as planned. Every launch we learn something new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The High Altitude Ballooning Club\u2019s misstep on May 15 was merely fuel for the next mission, the carrying forward of new knowledge, to build something better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much of science is \u201cpassing down knowledge along with generating new knowledge,\u201d says Barker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a blast learning from past club leaders, and it\u2019s been a joy to teach what I’ve learned to new club members and work through new problems together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It\u2019s
After the balloon took off without its payload (sitting next to the helium tank), it was a disappointing moment for the club \u2014 but not a failure. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A student club’s high-altitude balloon launch \u2014 minus its payload \u2014 offers a chance for some Commencement-season ruminations on the value of failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":140028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,130,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-collaboration","category-science-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139959"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172032,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139959\/revisions\/172032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}