Track HALE live via the web

[Eric]

I've posted several links on the HALE website that will allow you to
track the balloons live:

http://www.unr.edu/nevadasat/hale

We've also got the gallery up and running so anyone can email photos
that they would like posted.

Eric

[Eric]

After the planning meeting yesterday, the distribution of the payloads
between the two balloons was changed slightly. I just uploaded the
revised webpage to the HALE site. Here's the final payload
distribution:

Balloon #1 will carry: LUXPAK, Brix-Catcher, Peeps-in-Space, student
payload (local student), communications payload (a.k.a Energizer
payload), a video camera payload (a.k.a National Instruments) and Reel-
E.

Balloon #2 will carry: SLR camera payload, FLL Team 90, LEGO
Mindstorms Team, Gypsy, communications payload (a.k.a NXT payload) and
Little Joe.

We added a video camera payload that will be facing upwards the whole
mission with the hope of catching video of balloon #1 bursting and the
parachute deploying (it should also get some good video of all the
payloads above it). We also decided to fly our SLR camera payload.
That will give us about 1500 photos from balloon #2. Finally, we are
having a local high school student's payload tag alone for the ride.
She has patiently been waiting for a launch for 6 months.

Eric

[Brian Davis]

Update: For some reason, the server to show the public view of the
data has been down for about the last 12-24 hours, so it looks like
the "live online SPOT tracking" isn't working - sorry about that. The
team still does have access to that data, and except for Lil' Joe it's
not critical (although helpful), so the mission is still a "go", and
may launch within the next 2-3 hours (it's currently 4:52 AM at the
launch site, 7:53 AM here in Indiana, and launch is planned for "near
dawn" which is about 6:00 AM at the launch site).

I'll try to keep folks updated via theNXTstepblog and/or this group...
but it's time to cross your fingers, toes, etc.

--
Brian Davis

[David Levy]

Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone

[Claude]

Thanks !

We are crossing fingers here in Luxembourg too.

[David Leal]

Fingers Double Crossed here in Mexico

David

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 7:54 AM, Claude <claude....@education.lu> wrote:

Thanks !

We are crossing fingers here in Luxembourg too.

--
David Leal Martinez
Joint European Master in Space Science and Technology
david...@gmail.com
+52 81 86478065 (Appartment, Monterrey MX)
+52 (1) 8115376717 (Celular Monterrey, Mexico)
ISE 04

[David Leal]

I can see Balloon number 2 on aprs.fi, but not balloon 1 :S

has anyone been able to track balloon 1 number one somewhere?

Regards

David

[David Levy]

Looks like balloon #2 went up first. We were hoping to be 2nd to maximize the angle of the sun.. oh
well :)

Brian is giving a play by play on this blog entry:
http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2008/07/hale-launch-day-coverage.html

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:26:10 -0500, David Leal wrote

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[David Leal]

Looks like # 1 is going UP!

online now at 7072 mts , or 23203 feet

=)

David

[Claude]

Brian, where is balloon #1?

You reported that it reached 99000ft at 8:14PDT, but the last
KD7UCE-11 altitude is 81760 2 minutes ago?

[David Levy]

Any news on the missing payload from balloon 2?

Sent from my iPhone

[Brian Davis]

On Jul 29, 11:49 am, Claude <claude.baum...@education.lu> wrote:

> Brian, where is balloon #1?

Sorry about the confusion. It seems Balloon #1 (with LUXPAK) reached
99,566', but the GPS/ham system for some reason did not report
anything after it reached about 81,000'. That may mean a bad
connection, or a weak battery, or any number of things, but Eric later
called and told me the the 99,566' figure, so my guess is the GPS
worked fine but the downlink failed during the mission for some
reason. As of this time, all three grounded payloads (Lil' Joe,
Balloon #2, & Balloon #1) have all landed and been retrieved.

--
Brian Davis

[Brian Davis]

> Any news on the missing payload from balloon 2?

From talking to Eric, it seems it was the LEGO Mindstorms team payload
- no idea what it was or was supposed to do, but Eric said there was
no trace of it on the payload string when they found the balloon. *If*
there's was similar to most of the others, that implies to me that it
would have had to partially come apart to "fall off" the payload
string. Gypsy was also on that payload, and was logging the average
and peak accelerations for most of the flight. If that worked, we may
see a "transient" as something happens to the payload string... or
more likely, we may not (if the event was too short in duration to be
sampled, or lost in the numerous other accelerations experienced,
especially during cut-down).

I'm curious what it was supposed to do, however - does anyone know, or
know what it looked like?

--
Brian Davis

[Eric]

The LEGO mindstorms payload is (was) classified - even we were not
filled in on what it was really doing. All I can say is that we were
given instructions on how to attach it and start it. From what I can
tell by looking at it, the payload was supposed to take some sensor
readings but it was not enclosed in foam like all the other payloads
(i.e. it was going to get VERY cold). The LEGO mindstorms team were
well aware of the danger.

You can barely make it out in the photo on mobileme (it's the 2nd
payload from the top):
http://gallery.me.com/lego.professor#100014/IMG_5273_2&bgcolor=black
I'll try to dig up a better photo from the launch site (Jeff was the
official photographer). At launch, it seemed to be functioning (of
course, that's hard to tell when you don't know what it does).

In the photo on mobileme: http://gallery.me.com/lego.professor#100014/IMG_1072&bgcolor=black
you can see where it should have been (it should have been the 2nd
payload down - there is big gap between payloads above FLL team 90's).

The attachment point on the payload string is there but the carabiner
and payload are missing. I think either the carabiner failed (which
would be a first) or the payload itself broke (all LEGO - no glue). At
-60C and no enclosure, the plastic may have gotten brittle. After the
balloon bursts, things get really wild and the payloads can easily
experience 3 g's of acceleration. If the plastic was cold, it may have
snapped. But that does not explain the missing carabiner. Defnitely a
puzzle.

This is the first payload ever lost. Surprisingly, the LEGO mindstorms
team is not angry at all - or at least they are not telling me about
it. Perhaps they are so happy about the rest of the mission, they are
forgiving me :) (are you reading this Steve?).

We'll try to examine other photos from payloads for evidence of when
it broke free from the payload string. We'll keep everyone posted.

Eric

[Eric]

I just remembered another launch where a carabiner failed on impact
with the ground.

We documented it online:
http://www.unr.edu/nevadasat/BalloonSats/Balloonsat%20Pages/carabiners.html

In fact, it lead us to start testing carabiners.

If it had broken during impact, then it *might* be still out there at
recovery site 2. We looked around, but could have missed something
because the area was pretty rugged.

I did find a short dark grey technics beam on the ground - I thought
it was from gypsy (that's where I found it), but maybe not. Man I wish
we had searched the area longer. That was not a fun place to go hiking
and from what we could tell, no other humans had ever been there. Now,
it looks like we'll have to go back :(

Maybe LEGO won't mind us leaving it out there for a while...

Eric