Balloon releases are a mainstay at celebratory events. However, balloons can travel hundreds of miles and have a tendency to end up in lakes, seas and oceans. Balloons pose a danger to aquatic life and have a significant impact on pollution levels. Clean up efforts have found tens of thousands of balloons on beaches yearly in the United States alone (Witmer, 2017). Laser light can be used to damage balloon's membranes and prohibit them from flying into bodies of water. This project explores the usage of a system of links to to safely remove balloons from the atmosphere with lasers. Theoretically, the linkage-laser system higher ranges, but the current system is limited due to Gaussian beam and power limitations. Future work can be extended to auto-target balloons in the air.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Lund, Matthew J.

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042519-091852

Advisor

• Bhatia, Mehul A.
• Kafle, Rudra Prasad

Year

• 2019

Date created

• 2019-04-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Interdisciplinary

Rights statement

• In Copyright