BallastHalo 1

[James Coxon]

Hi all,
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

[WB8...@aol.com]

I've done this several times....some flights stayed up over 17 hours....but usually at night where the UV from the Sun doesn't degrade the latex of the balloon.

 

A 1/16" or less diameter hole in a 1500 gram balloon usually will float....two 1/16" holes caused the flight to stop at 28,000 feet and then slowly return to Earth.

 

So the trick is getting the hole just the right size to vent enough helium before the balloon bursts but not too much.

 

I control the hole with a PVC pipe in the neck of the balloon with the hole in the pipe cap.

 

- Bill WB8ELK

www.wb8elk.com

 

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[James Coxon]

Hey all,
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]

Another Update,
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>:

[Mark Caviezel]

Sounds like a good flight!   Good job!

- Mark