POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KFVS) – As festivals are happening across the Heartland, one group is using the Eclipse weekend to prepare for a nationwide project with NASA.
Virginia Tech students gathered at a park in Poplar Bluff to prepare for Monday. They worked to fill a smaller version of the balloons they’ll launch on Eclipse Day.
Those balloons will have equipment to help collect data, and live stream the eclipse from the edge of space.
The group got to experience filling up those balloons on a windy day, something Team Mentor Ginny Smith says they don’t have to deal with often.
“Especially in the wind, it’s going to be very difficult to do the fill. You have the balloon before it’s taken its full shape with the helium,” said Smith. “It’s basically an amoeba. It’s like a water balloon. You can’t grab it and hold onto it because you might damage the balloon. It’s to become a very big game of hot potato.”
NASA has groups all along the path, including a group from Saint Louis University. They’ll be at the Trail of Tears in Cape Girardeau County.
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