Voyage of the Peep-o-nauts

On April Fools Day, 2000, NASA researchers question the fate of high-flying Peeps.

April Fools Day, 2000: For the past two years, NASA scientists at the Marshall Space Flight Center, in cooperation with ham radio enthusiasts, have pursued a high-flying program to investigate the meteoroid population of the stratosphere. One after another, weather balloons have been launched carrying a special dust collector designed to capture high-speed but fragile meteoroids. The first weather balloon mission was during the Leonids meteor shower on November 17, 1998. Subsequent flights included the 1999 Perseid meteor shower, the 1999 Leonids meteor storm, and a control flight on April 11, 1999 when no meteor showers were active.

Right: Peeps strapped in for the April 11 launch. The peeps capsule was mounted on top of the payload, next to a box containing the meteoroid capture medium.

These flights were reported in earlier stories. However, one fascinating and tragic aspect of the story was not announced until now. The April 11 flight included five brave passengers -- intrepid explorers who never returned. Where they went, and how, remains a mystery.

Stowed away on the weather balloon sent aloft in April 1999 were five tiny Peeps. How they got there is controversial. Most of his colleagues think they were smuggled on board by Bryan Walls, an irreverent member of the launch team. However it happened, one thing is clear -- these Peeps were not purchased with tax dollars and NASA does not endorse these brightly colored sweet treats!

The balloon launch was nominal with no major problems. Strong winds at the launch site were something of a concern, but proved not to be a major hazard. Telemetry from the payload reported the position of the balloon and returned spectacular video footage of the ground and the sky. But everything did not go as planned.

Left: A RealVideo replay of a popping meteor balloon may be viewed by clicking here. It is a five-minute segment of the Perseids Live! webcast from August 13, 1999. The gurgling sounds during the first 3.5 minutes are caused by high altitude winds blowing past the balloon's onboard microphone. A scientist can be heard providing a voice-over commentary about the flight and the Perseids meteor shower. The rupture itself was relatively soundless, but you can immediately hear the gurgling sound transformed into a screech of rushing wind as the payload plummets toward the earth.

Sign up for our NASA SCIENCE NEWS delivery

Soon afterward the balloon ruptured on schedule at an altitude of 110,000 ft. Unfortunately, no one had briefed the Peeps about this part of the mission! The audio downlink transmitted a mixture of wind and the payload's audio beacon. You can clearly hear the sounds of rushing wind when the balloon popped (at something over 100,000 feet) and began its plummet toward the ground.

As the payload fell toward Earth, the attached parachute began to work. The balloon gently drifted downward toward a tree in Georgia. It was recovered within about 3 hours by volunteer balloon chasers Ralph Fowler and Eddie Foust about 5 miles west of Adairsville on the property of Chet Hale. However, the Peeps in their capsule, as well as the top-mounted Plexiglas xerogel sample capture device, were missing!

As any reader of detective novels knows, if a mysterious disappearance occurs one should investigate the motive, means, and opportunity of possible suspects. Though all evidence is purely circumstantial, there is an intriguing possibility for a culprit in the Case of the Missing Peeps.

The photo on the left shows the mysterious phenomenon known as a Sprite (see story Spirits of Another Sort). Sprites have been known to appear briefly above powerful thunderstorms. Dr. Dave Sentman of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks is one among a small group of researchers who have been studying these mysterious bursts of colored light. Although no one is sure what sprites really are or what causes them, these scientists have learned that sprites contain a great deal of energy.

"Although we're not yet certain, we suspect that the energies from sprites may be sufficient to drive some novel ... reactions," said Sentman. "The region of the atmosphere where sprites appear typically doesn't contain a lot of energy, so the energy introduced from a sprite could do some really interesting things."

So we know that Sprites inhabit the high atmosphere (opportunity), and have the energy necessary (means). But what of motive?

On the right we see the preflight adoration of the weather balloon that took place that fateful April day. Might not this show of worship to a mere balloon have sparked the jealously of a powerful Sprite? Motive, means, and opportunity, all at hand. An intriguing possibility, though far from an open and shut case. We may never know for sure.

Ed Myszka, Payload Integration and Test Administrator (PITA), later met the recovery team and returned what was left of the payload to the Marshall Space Flight Center.

"The whereabouts of the Peeps remains a mystery," said Peep Principle Investigator (PeepPI) Bryan Walls. "Ed Myszka is the kind of guy who would bite the head off a Peep, but I have to believe him when he said he doesn't like them. Were they abducted by aliens, explaining both their disappearance and the telemetry dropout? Did the cosmic radiation at high altitude transform them into some sort of fantastic flying creature? Were they ripped off by the parachute, or by branches of the tree the payload landed in? We may never know for sure."

What we do know for sure is that Peeps are not easily cowed by danger. On the next balloon flight another team of five Peeps were up to the task of braving the stratosphere. Launched on Friday, August 13, the balloon was released during the Perseid meteor shower.

Somewhat overfull of helium, the balloon rapidly ascended to 65,000 feet, far short of the target 100,000 feet, where it popped. Due to the short flight time and different wind patterns from previous flights, the payload landed just a few miles from the launch site at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The whole payload was quickly recovered, including the fearless Peeps who had come through the wild ride through rarefied air and temperatures below -40° unscathed save for a few hayseeds sticking to them.

Right: Have you seen these Peeps? A close-up of the missing Peep-o-nauts shortly before launch.

"Was their safe trip only due to the premature pop," Walls wondered, "or might they have successfully made the full trip this time? We may never know for sure."

Editor's Note: The Leonid and Perseid meteor balloon flights really happened, and Peeps were stowed away on some of these missions. This dubious story, published on April Fools Day, is not intended to imply official NASA endorsement of Peeps or Peep-related products. No tax dollars were spent on the Peeps, their containment device (the yellow box pictured above), or the tape used to attach them to the payload of the meteor balloon. Marshmallow Peeps, and the shape of the Marshmallow Peeps chick are registered trademarks of Just Born, Inc.