The Iowa Idea at Great Heights- Iceland Solar Eclipse High-Altitude Ballooning Project
The Iowa Idea at Great Heights- Iceland Solar Eclipse High-Altitude Ballooning Project
University of Iowa
Description of Course
In this interdisciplinary course, undergraduate and graduate students will work collaboratively and deeply to design, build, and launch a high-altitude weather balloon as part of the Iceland Eclipse Ballooning Project. Drawing from art, science, and engineering, students will gain firsthand integrative research experience and develop both creative and technical proficiencies. Students will engage with theoretical concepts and practical applications alike, learning skills in project planning, collaboration, theoretical science and engineering, and hand drawing/drafting within an innovative project-based learning framework - designing and fabricating the high-altitude balloon payload for solar eclipse research and testing it.
In its 2026 offering, The Iowa Idea course specifically targets the Iceland Eclipse Ballooning Project.
August 12, 2026, during the solar eclipse, the balloon and payload students design and create will be launched. The launch will be from the Westfjords, Iceland, which is within the path of totality.
Learning Objectives
This course centers on the conceptualization and fabrication of a high-altitude payload with both scientific and artistic import. By the end of this course, students will have developed the broad variety of skills necessary to successfully complete such a mission-critical, time-sensitive, and highly collaborative project. At the end of this course, students will be able to:
identify and explain atmospheric and meteorological phenomena affecting flight dynamics of high-altitude aerostats;
translate and express scientific experimentation across a variety of media, forms, and practices, including data visualization, photographic and videographic production, and creative writing;
plan, manage, and execute the design, testing, and fabrication of a reliable scientific and artistic payload;
work collaboratively within and beyond their home disciplines by sharing expertise, adopting novel and interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving, and strengthening their ability to work in teams.
Tentative Schedule
In the first phase of the course, students will learn key concepts in atmospheric physics, meteorology, artistic practice, and interdisciplinary research. Guest lecturers from units across the University of Iowa and the University of North Dakota—including Meteorology, Astronomy, Art, and English—will lead workshops and seminars that guide students through topics as varied as atmospheric dynamics, pressure gradients, geological history, data visualization, photographic documentation, and narrative design.
The curriculum also includes instruction on sensor technologies used to gather environmental data such as temperature profiles, humidity levels, ultraviolet radiation intensity, and cosmic ray detection. This scientific and artistic foundation equips students with the knowledge necessary to analyze real-time conditions encountered by the balloon as it ascends through various strata of the atmosphere. By the end of the first phase, students will have gained a multidisciplinary understanding not only of the scientific and artistic objectives they will need to accomplish, but also of the options and approaches available to them for the achievement of those objectives. The first phase ends as students collaboratively integrate their expertise to design, build, and prototype a payload package for a high-altitude weather balloon launch.
In the second phase of the course, students will finalize and fabricate the high-altitude weather balloon, the payload, and the payload deployment system. This shift from concept to real-steel work will allow students to learn and leverage the considerable prototyping and manufacturing resources of the University, ranging from additive manufacturing to machine learning. Students’ efforts will culminate in the launch of their high-altitude weather balloon and its payload to observe the 2026 total solar eclipse.
From the scientific perspective, the course covers, with the execution of the Iceland Eclipse Ballooning Project, atmospheric physics, meteorology, and data collection methodologies essential for understanding high altitude environments. Students will learn about atmospheric layers, temperature gradients, pressure variations, and solar radiation—key factors influencing balloon flight dynamics during a solar eclipse event. The curriculum includes instruction on sensor technologies used to gather environmental data such as temperature profiles, humidity levels, ultraviolet radiation intensity, and cosmic ray detection. This scientific foundation equips students with the knowledge necessary to analyze real-time conditions encountered by the balloon as it ascends through various strata of the atmosphere.
Engineering components the Iceland Eclipse Ballooning Project focus on the design and fabrication of the weather balloon system itself. Students will study materials science to select appropriate lightweight yet durable materials capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and pressures at high altitudes. Emphasis is placed on structural engineering principles to ensure stability during launch and flight phases. The course also addresses electronics integration including telemetry systems for communication with ground stations as well as power management solutions to sustain onboard instruments throughout the mission duration. Hands-on workshops pre-trip to Iceland, and then in Iceland launching the balloon, facilitate experiential learning where theoretical designs are translated into functional prototypes that meet stringent deployment standards.
The artistic dimension enriches this technical endeavor by encouraging aesthetic considerations in both the conceptualization and exhibition stages. What is it like to be yet another human creature standing on the skin of this world, watching the Sun be once more extinguished? Modern astronomical models allow us to calculate the exact time, location, and arc of any solar eclipse that has occurred or will occur. What does it mean to know our history and our future with such precision? Students will learn visual design and drawing skills for visually showing the technical elements of the payload while also documenting their project through creative media, including photography and videography, to be able to capture empirical data and convey narrative elements linked to human curiosity surrounding eclipses and atmospheric exploration. Learning these visual art skills will enhance the student’s observational skills alongside emotional resonance with scientific inquiry.
Background and Motivation
Innovation arises from interdisciplinary collaboration and the cross-pollination of ideas and approaches. Yet the modern world is marked by a profusion of highly specialized domains of knowledge of such staggering complexity that their experts are at risk of becoming siloed within their fields. As contemporary challenges become ever more complex, their solutions require researchers and practitioners who are prepared to move in orbits beyond their own disciplines, leveraging the strengths of these different domains—art’s exploration of creativity and human experience, science’s systematic inquiry into natural phenomena, and engineering’s focus on iterative design and continuous refinement—to generate innovations that answer both to functional and aesthetic concerns.
Integrating art, science, and engineering in research is a comprehensive approach that fosters innovation and addresses complex problems through multidisciplinary perspectives. Traditionally, these fields have been viewed as distinct disciplines with different methodologies and objectives; however, the convergence of art, science, and engineering offers a comprehensive framework that enhances creativity, critical thinking, and practical application. This integration leverages the strengths of each domain—art’s emphasis on creativity and human experience, science’s systematic inquiry into natural phenomena, and engineering’s focus on design and problem-solving—to generate novel solutions that are both functional and aesthetically meaningful.
One fundamental advantage of integrating these fields is the expansion of methodological tools available to researchers. Scientific methods provide empirical rigor necessary for validating hypotheses about natural systems or materials. Engineering principles enable the translation of scientific knowledge into tangible technologies or infrastructures. Artistic practices contribute an interpretive lens that encourages experimentation beyond conventional boundaries. For instance, incorporating artistic visualization techniques can enhance data representation in scientific research by making complex information more accessible to diverse audiences. Similarly, engineers who engage with artistic design principles may create products or environments that not only perform efficiently but also resonate emotionally with users.
The high-altitude weather balloon at the heart of this course is a boundary object: an artifact that “[inhabits] multiple worlds simultaneously, and which must meet the demands of each one” (Star and Griesemer, 1989). Boundary objects draw interested parties from disparate spheres and offer them a surface on which their varying expertise can find mutually intelligible ground—the meteorologist can understand the mechanical engineer, who in turn can understand the photographer, the astronomer, and the writer. Each becomes able to deploy the tools of their peers: scientific methods provide empirical rigor necessary for validating hypotheses about natural systems or materials, engineering principles enable the translation of scientific knowledge into tangible technologies, and artistic practices contribute an interpretive lens that encourages experimentation beyond conventional boundaries. As the boundary object comes into focus for each of its interested parties, it also becomes a means by which these people can exchange ideas, concepts, approaches, and solutions. These ‘trading zones’ (Galison, 1997) are sites of cross-disciplinary contact, negotiation, and, ultimately, invention; in this way are questions answered.
During a solar eclipse, the brief and abrupt disappearance of the Sun and its warming rays allow a significant volume of the local atmosphere to cool. What are the effects of this thermodynamic change on wind, pressure, and atmospheric conditions?
A weather balloon’s payload must be light, strong, and recoverable after its return to the surface. What material and structural characteristics are required for high-altitude flight?
Since the appearance of behaviorally modern humans some quarter-million years ago, human eyes have gazed at a darkened Sun perhaps 160,000 times. What is it like to be yet another human creature standing on the skin of this world, watching the Sun be once more extinguished?
Modern astronomical models allow us to calculate the exact time, location, and arc of any solar eclipse that has occurred or will occur. What does it mean to know our history and our future with such precision?
This interdisciplinary course cultivates an integrative mindset whereby students will learn how art inspires innovation within scientific research while engineering provides tangible means for realization. By working to launch a weather balloon during the 2026 solar eclipse in the path of totality, coordinated by the Eclipse Ballooning Project team collaborators worldwide—and regardless of whether the launch itself succeeds—students will emerge equipped with diverse competencies applicable across STEM and creative disciplines, ready to tackle the multivariate and complex problems of our modern world.
