LAICAnSat-5: A mission for recording the total solar eclipse from the stratosphere

This work presents the preparations, testing, and analysis of the LAICAnSat-5 mission to record the total solar eclipse from the stratosphere using 360° cameras for reconstruction in virtual reality. This mission, entitled Kuaray, was part of the NASA Space Grant Eclipse Ballooning Project, coordinated by the Montana State University, under a partnership with the Brasilia Astronomy Club. The LAICAnSat-5 was launched as secondary payload onto one of the Montana State University BOREALIS Program balloons. The LAICAnSat was the only team from Brazil in the Eclipse Ballooning Project and this paper presents the description of the Kuaray mission, the preliminary test flights conducted at the beginning of 2017, as well as the performance analysis of the newest version of the LAICAnSat platform. Moreover, some key challenges concerning LAICAnSat system development and building were identified and they are related to the platform requirements (elicitation and management), considered as a key benefit for the engineering education trough active learning. The final outcome was a successful mission providing a 360° video of the total solar eclipse including the vertical meteorological information along the whole flight path.