230
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. von Ehrenfried, Stratospheric Balloons, Springer Praxis Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68130-2_10
10
Educating the Next Generation
10.1 FUNDING SOURCES
Many government agencies have education programs that are aligned to their core
missions. With respect to scientific stratospheric balloons, NASA and NSF have
programs to sponsor science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
education that specifically relates to balloons, because these play a major role in
education. Over the years, experiments flown on scientific balloons have helped
develop future scientists. It is feasible for undergraduate and graduate students to
design and conduct a balloon-based scientific study within the time it takes them
to achieve a two to five year graduate degree program. University professors are
developing many of the current scientific balloon payloads with team members
from the graduate and undergraduate student body. In effect, these agencies are
the funding sources for those programs. It then becomes the responsibility of the
participating schools and universities to compete for those funds to support their
particular areas of interest and programs.
Even corporations have similar programs to promote the education of students
in the hope that they will become employees, although these may be more biased
to studies which relate to their core businesses. The skills required for scientific
and commercial ballooning are fundamental to many fields of engineering, technology and a number of science disciplines. From a student’s view point, this first
points to the basics such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer applications and engineering. But along the way, the education must instill a desire and
interest in ballooning and all that that entails; for example mission planning and
operations, payload integration, flight safety and even international coordination.
These skills are not often taught as part of a regular curriculum, they are usually
obtained via experience outside of formal schooling. While the student might
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. von Ehrenfried, Stratospheric Balloons, Springer Praxis Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68130-2_10
10
Educating the Next Generation
10.1 FUNDING SOURCES
Many government agencies have education programs that are aligned to their core
missions. With respect to scientific stratospheric balloons, NASA and NSF have
programs to sponsor science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
education that specifically relates to balloons, because these play a major role in
education. Over the years, experiments flown on scientific balloons have helped
develop future scientists. It is feasible for undergraduate and graduate students to
design and conduct a balloon-based scientific study within the time it takes them
to achieve a two to five year graduate degree program. University professors are
developing many of the current scientific balloon payloads with team members
from the graduate and undergraduate student body. In effect, these agencies are
the funding sources for those programs. It then becomes the responsibility of the
participating schools and universities to compete for those funds to support their
particular areas of interest and programs.
Even corporations have similar programs to promote the education of students
in the hope that they will become employees, although these may be more biased
to studies which relate to their core businesses. The skills required for scientific
and commercial ballooning are fundamental to many fields of engineering, technology and a number of science disciplines. From a student’s view point, this first
points to the basics such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer applications and engineering. But along the way, the education must instill a desire and
interest in ballooning and all that that entails; for example mission planning and
operations, payload integration, flight safety and even international coordination.
These skills are not often taught as part of a regular curriculum, they are usually
obtained via experience outside of formal schooling. While the student might