HONOLULU — The Girl Scouts of Hawaii (GSH) announced on Thursday that three Hawaii Girl Scouts have helped local science instructor and researcher Douglas Panee with the third balloon launch of the JV-HAB high altitude balloon project.
“One of GSH’s priorities is encouraging girls to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,” said GSH Director of Programs Charelle Silva in the announcement. “Opportunities like these really help to foster interest in these fields to do just that.”
“Two out of the four girls that participated in last year’s launch are now in college pursuing higher education in STEM — one studying engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and the other working on her pilot’s license,” Silva said. “We are already seeing the incredible impact of these kinds of efforts.”
Funded by the Utah NASA Utah Space Consortium, and the North American Native Research and Education Foundation, the JV-HAB project studies microbes and their ability to sustain themselves to propagate or find new hosts thousands of miles away.
The project’s first launch was held on Aug. 12, 2023, with another held on March 2, 2024. The third was held this week at Sandy Beach on Oahu.
The first balloon was tracked all the way to Cairo, Egypt, before losing contact. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has approached project leaders to use data collected by the balloon to help with its wind pattern prediction models. The data has helped NOAA to become more precise with its wind pattern algorithms in the regions the balloon traversed.
For those interested in tracking the balloon, there is a website, https://tgilinks.com/42kx9Na
The link provides information on the current or last transmitted location of the balloon. The tracking system also has the ability to predict a day or two of possible paths. Visitors to the link can see the speed, location, altitude, map of the area, and more.
GSH supports more than 4,000 girl and adult members across Hawaii. It aims to build girls of courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place.
GSH headquarters is located on Oahu with three Neighbor Island service centers on the islands of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui. GSH is chartered by the national office, Girl Scouts of the USA and is responsible for the leadership, administration, and supervision of Girl Scout programs in the state of Hawaii.
For more information, visit www.gshawaii.org.
