"Suicide" Balloons

[John Laidler]

Can I ask the UKHAS community for their views on what might be called suicide balloons? By this I mean a balloon which is launched with no intention of recovering it. Specifically, given where I live, a launch where the flight goes over and ends in the sea.

My proposed payload would be less than 100g and probably under 80g and would be encased in expanded polystyrene. There might be a parachute but probably just some sort of drogue so the descent velocity was limited. 

Thoughts? 

John

M0WIV 

[Mika Köching]

I personally try to avoid launching anything into the sea. I try to launch them so there's a chance for someone to recover them which worked quite well so far.

The weather services already have their sondes landing in the ocean so I don't want to add to that waste.

[Nick McCloud]

On Sunday, 29 March 2026 at 15:29:18 UTC+1 John Laidler wrote:

 Specifically, given where I live, a launch where the flight goes over and ends in the sea.

What is the WHY, the rationale, behind it - seems a waste and it is polluting the sea and part of the point of tracking is to get it back.  

Is there some data you'd collect you can't get any other way. Or other test results?

[John Laidler]

No rationale other than perhaps with a low cost payload it might cost more in fuel to collect the payload than the payload is worth. 

But I'm going to drop the idea and aim for a recovery. It's a lot better idea and avoids any risk of adverse publicity.

John

M0WIV 

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