BallastHalo 1
James Coxon
Just to announce we are going to launch BallestHalo 1 on Friday
17/07/09 at 17:00 GMT (18:00 BST) from Churchill. The flight plan is
to use a small pin hole as a vent in a tube in the neck, as the
balloon ascends it'll lose helium which will eventually allow it to
reach 'neutral buoyancy' and float! The aim of the mission is to test
this method of floating as a potential way of testing the ballast
tanks and other components that would be required for a
trans-atlantic. If all goes to plan the balloon should float all
night...
At present the forecasts suggest that once it achieves float it'll go
west towards Wales, if the forecast changes and it goes east thats no
worries - lets hope it makes it to the Netherlands!
Just as a warning this is a high risk flight - quite a few variables
that could easily go wrong - please don't be disappointed if something
does!
Payload:
* 1.2kg Balloon
* Vent (waste pipe with cap and vent hole)
* Arduino + Radiometrix NTX2 (434.075Mhz) + Ublox GPS
* 2 blocks of 4xAA Lithiums (6000mAh)
* Nichrome wire cutdown
* Parachute
So how can people get involved?
* If you are in Cambridge help with the launch would be great.
* In the UK or Europe - the more listeners the better really, need a
radio that can do 70cm (430-440Mhz) and also SSB, grab the dl-fldigi
software (http://code.google.com/p/dl-fldigi/), fill in the details
once installed and get tracking. If you plan to track and need some
help get in touch.
* Moral support on #highaltitude :-D
* Can follow on: http://spacenear.us/tracker/
More info:
* http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/wiki/doku.php/missions:ballasthalo
* http://spacenear.us/wiki/doku.php
* http://code.google.com/p/dl-fldigi/
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcoxon77/sets/72157621083447545/
James
James Coxon
Just an update - one the second attempt we've finally got a floater -
floating at 28500m altitude over Norfolk right now. Track is on
http://spacenear.us/tracker/ (though warning - there are lots of dirty
points)
Chat is on #highaltitude on freenode
James
2009/7/15 James Coxon <jac...@googlemail.com>:
James Coxon
Coming up to 9.5hrs of flight and 5hrs and 45 mins of float, we lost
gps lock a couple of hours ago however still have a strong signal tell
us no gps data and giving the last known position, hopefully with the
rising sun things might kick back into action!
James and Fergus (still awake!)
2009/7/18 James Coxon <jac...@googlemail.com>: