OLIVE HILL — Girl Scouts at Camp Cardinal went somewhere no Kentucky Girl Scouts before them have gone: to near space.

On Thursday, with the help of engineers at Kentucky Space, the scouts launched a high-altitude balloon as the culmination of months of collaboration between the scouts the non-profit Kentucky Space and Morehead State University’s Space Science Center.

The balloon carried on board an experiment designed by the scouts that will help them answer their question about how common household liquids behave in space.

Girl Scout troops in Carter, Boyd and Greenup Counties participated in the project, which began with more than 40 participants and ended with a core of seven motivated girls scouts from three troops including: Quanna Price, of Troop 950, Ashley Wilson, of Troop 973, Rozemieke Bruce, of troop 399, and Kathryn Smith, Engelien Bruce, Caitlin Worthington, and Skyler Stanley, all of Troop 966.

The girls met monthly at MSU to learn about near space and to craft their hypothesis and create the experiment.

Twyman Clements, a space systems engineer with Kentucky Space, led the girls through the process of developing their experiment and spearheaded the ballon launch on Thursday. A team of University of Kentucky Space Systems Lab students, Joshua Evans and Trevor Fenwick, and Kentucky Space’s social media expert Wayne Hall were also there to help.

The scouts helped the team assemble the high-altitude balloon, and loaded vials of rubbing alcohol, antifreeze, orange juice and salt water, into the payload attached to the balloon.

Smith, a cadet, explained the experiment, as it was being loaded: “We all came together and thought about what we might need if we ever go up in space.”

“We went to the basics, what if our planet got overgrown and we would have to go to another planet, what would we need,” added Bruce, explaining the group chose the compounds because they are all items people would most likely take with them.

Clements said the scouts’ experiment was created after they learned about the environment the balloon would be exposed to during its flight.

“It goes up to 100,000 feet,” said Clements. “At that point, 99 percent of the atmosphere is below you. It is right at the edge of space and it is really cold. There is no air. I talked to them about that in broad terms,” he said.

Clements said the scouts learned that “liquids boil when they get hot, but also when there is low pressure. They also freeze when its cold.” He added, the scouts developed their hypothesis based on that knowledge. The question is, “Which of those two are they going to do? Boil or freeze.  What is going to win that battle between temperature and liquid?”

The answer is highly anticipated.

“I’m looking forward to just seeing what happens to the liquids,” said Stanley. “I’m hoping some of it freezes.”

“It seems like as it goes on I am more anxious to see what happens. I’m hoping some of it freezes,” said Worthington, echoing that sentiment.

“I think the water is going to freeze when it hits a certain temperature but it will boil,” said Smith. “I think the antifreeze will freeze last.”

To find out, the balloon was equipped with three digital cameras that took photographs of the test tubes every minute, along with a video camera that recorded the entire launch, flight and fall back to earth. A GPS locator was also attached to the balloon so it could be found after parachuting down to earth.

The balloon lifted off from Camp Cardinal shortly after 2 p.m.   

It traveled more than 20 miles away, and parachuted down into a tree along the right fork of Smith Branch near Lloyd. As of press time Friday, Twyman and Hall were still working to recover the ballon, which had become tangled high in a tree on top of a ridge.

When the payload is recovered, Twyman said, Kentucky Space will share the videos and photographs the balloon captured with the Girl Scouts so they can determine the results of their experiment.

They will also be posted online on Facebook and at KentuckySpace.com.

Susan Hansell the CEO of Girl Scouts of Kentucky’s Wilderness Road, said the entire project was to get girl scouts engaged in the STEM disciplines, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

“Girl Scouts really wants to be promoting leadership for our girls and giving them opportunities to see where the future can take them,” said Hansell. “With girl scouts we want you to have courage, confidence and character. So courage to get beyond your fears of science and technology, and understand how much fun it is and also how much relevance it can have to your life and also how much opportunity there is for you,” she said.

It seems to have worked.

Several of the girls admitted prior to this project, they didn’t have much interest in science.

“I didn’t like science until this,” said Wilson, who noted she’s interested in doing more experiments now.

Clements, who has built technology that’s in use now on the International Space Station, can relate.

“I was always interested in science, but I never really hunkered down or was self-motivated about it until I did something,” Clements said. He said showing kids how algebra leads into physics, which is how things get done in the real world is challenging. It’s just better to show them.

“You really can’t explain it. You have to do something and usually fail at it to get that motivation,” he said.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.