The Cosmic ray detection experiment is a simple, inexpensive and low-mass project researched and crafted for this year's balloon launch. The purpose of this experiment is to bring a highly sensitive film (ISO 3200 B&W in this experiment) to a high altitude in the earth's atmosphere with the intent of recording markings left on the ISO 3200 film by cosmic rays travelling through the film; the markings will be detected by laying the unrolled, developed film roll across a light box and using a negative loupe (a magnifying glass) to inspect the film for small spots, if the roll did in fact collide with enough cosmic radiation to produce a record of it. Along with the ISO 3200 film, two rolls of 200 speed color film were also used for the experiment as control devices; one was attached along the ISO 3200 film with the balloon and the other was attached to the outside roof of the chase-vehicle, to ensure that it received sunlight exposure during the same time-frame as the film rolls attached to the balloon. The two control rolls will provide comparisons for the ISO 3200 film roll in order to determine which markings are unique, and which are common between each roll of film, in order to ultimately determine which markings are from cosmic radiation and which are dismissable.
200 speed color film, ground-level control.
The film canisters that went up with the balloon.
The ISO 3200 B&W film is still away being processed with a chance at completion by this Friday, the 15th of June; the film was submitted to Rite-Aid on Saturday, the 2nd of June. Rite-Aid had to send the film out for processing and their processed film is returned on Tuesdays and Fridays; I will update this section as soon as the film is retrieved and I am able to analyze the results.
Finally the film has all been developed; unfortunately, there were no marks on any of the film rolls indicative of cosmic radiation colliding with the film and producing detectable results using this method.