High Altitude Ballooning and Applied Sciences: When we started ARBONET, we did so because we thought it was very interesting in many ways. Several significant mentors shared the knowledge of how to get started, invited our participation on their flights and cultivated our enthusiasm. Soon the Arbonet group followed with the launch of Arbonet-1.  Our first launch was truly a very successful failure. Our launch was flawed, but after clearing a snag the flight was underway. Within minutes, almost all of our payloads failed or malfunctioned in some manner. This was very disappointing. However, a few key pieces of the system still operated well enough that our talented ground teams and chase plane personnel successfully tracked and recovered the entire system without any major mishap. This was a successful failure because of two very prominent key points: 1)  Failure realization: The failure of our payloads strongly indicated we need to be better prepared. More flight and payload preparation and testing is required for a better chance of a great flight. 2) Success: We realized a spectacular flight profile, likely reaching 110,000 feet, followed by a successful recovery with no major problems and no damage to any payload. This means the fill team was right on target with the amount of helium used, the parachute successfully deployed and controlled the descent, and our ground launch and recovery teams did a great job. In addition, the flight was successfully tracked by the longitude and latitude announcements, and ploted by a team armed with the tools needed to adapt to tracking the flight by the digitally synthesized voice announcements rather than the APRS system as planned. Overall, this event helped us realize this High Altitude Balloon effort really does have serious challenges to address. We can use these challenges in turn to challenge our minds in technological aspects as well as in the logistics and teamwork required to make the flight positive from weeks before launch. We have put a lot more preparation time, thought and effort into Arbonet II. The payloads are all completely rebuilt. Testing and prep have been going on for weeks. Contact with the FAA (Fort Worth Center) have resulted in a procedure to ensure air safety and communicate position and altitude reports to the Approach and Departure teams that control the airspace we will inhabit. Ground teams and tracking teams are far better prepared and the sum of these efforts will likely result in better performance of all areas of this flight.   The Fun in Science: There definitely is magnetism and romance associated with building something that will go higher than all but a few humans will ever experience. There is a draw to facing the challenges of overcoming the problems faced with near-space treks, problems that demand a more challenging solution than most of us face in our day-to-day lives. But once you have started to address and (hopefully) overcome these challenges, you start to look at the system for practical use besides the challenge and the thrill of near space flight. This has resulted in a desire to: 1) Involve students of all ages. Many of us went to school and did less than our best because we were not challenged, and / or we did not understand the practical use of what was being taught. Our desire here is to involve students in the science that goes into the near-space flight. The effort is not just like the hap-hazard approach to letting go of a carnival balloon, but this effort involves a real flight vehicle with displacement lift, a load, operational systems (usually) and teamwork to make it all happen. Technology used in these systems involve extensive math systems (like GPS) communications systems, electronic theory, physics, weather sciences and much, much more! Though we are not anywhere as complex or challenged as NASA with outer-space exploration, space travel, re-entry and huge payloads, much of what we do challenges us along the lines of what the first rocket-scientists faced in the infancy of space exploration. 2) On all future flights after Arbonet-II, provide some space for a student's experiment. We would like to provide space on a payload for a student to install and conduct an experiment of their choosing. On a flight previous to Arbonet-1, as a guest aboard a North Texas Balloon Project  flight #13, a young student from Desoto, Texas made up an experiment that would provide an indication of pressure changes during the flight. The idea was to show the decrease in air pressure as the balloon ascended by means of a piston with trapped air on one side equal to one atmosphere at ground level, pushing the piston towards the reduced air-pressure side while ascending, and providing a means of indicating the movement happened in flight once the payload was back on the ground. Although the experiment failed to indicate much of anything (for some reason), we all learned something:  Some experiments do not turn out as planned.   North Texas Balloon Project Team Picture prior to lift-off Desoto student with W5BL after succesfull payload recovery Other Practical Uses: There are many practical uses for high-altitude ballooning, and here are a few examples: 1) Emergency Services: Ham radio is dedicated to support and aid the public in need. Using a set of high-altitude balloons, with communications or visual equipment capabilities, communications could be achieved in a round-the-clock fashion, sending up one balloon and using it until out of reach, and then follow it with a second balloon, and a third, etc, providing continuous communications over the entire coverage area, which could span a diameter of 600 miles with this type of system. 2) Environmental Mapping: Today, GEO and LEO satellites provide mapping services from a distance of 150 to several thousand miles from the surface of the earth. A balloon system could provide an economical platform from which data could be gathered to provide an alternative form of information about our changing earth. 3) Air Sampling: We know a lot about the air at sea level up to several thousand feet, but a balloon system of this type transitions from sea level or near sea level to over 100,000 feet. This transition happens at a fairly constant rate and allows for significant sampling opportunities from sea level through the outer layers of the atmosphere, where the air is approximately 1% as dense as it is at sea level. 4) Weather Observations: Although NOAA weather balloons are sent up daily, not many of us get to place an experiment aboard. Here is the chance to place a light-weight experiment aboard a flight system that can be remotely controlled, monitored and with free passage. Not a bad deal! Many other uses will come to mind, too many to list here. Use your imagination and send us an email . We would like to see involvement of students from all areas of science get involved with our efforts and get a free ride aboard an ARBONET flight!