Status: Mission Success
Original Launch Plans: (Here)
Project Manager's Summary
On April 13th, 2008 the Vandal Atmospheric Science Team, Moscow High School, and Thermal Exposure Senior Design Team, with help from W7UQ radio club launched two high altitude balloons with separate payloads. This launch represents these students ability to work together and overcome technical, communication, and integration challenges.
The University of Idaho payload, including research projects designed by the VAST team and the UI senior design team, contained a wireless sensor network, an experimental data logging board, high resolution digital camera, and multiple tracking radios. The wireless sensor network hardware is designed as a prototype data acquisition architecture to be used on future NASA flight mission during a spacecraft planetary entry. VAST students on the Control and Data Handling team flight tested a student designed SD card data logging board. The board is designed to log flight data from temperature, pressure, and acceleration sensors in addition to data from a miniature GPS receiver. A Petax Optio30 oriented at the horizon, captured hundreds of 7 Mega pixel digital images throughout the flight.
The University payload ascended through the atmosphere at a slower ascent rate (~600 ft/min) than planed (12 ft/min). This made the ground team very nervous in the moments following release. The danger is that since the balloon is ascending slower than anticipated, it spends more time in the jet stream causing the balloon and its payload to travel great distances. Luckily, the balloon burst at an unusually low altitude of 63,000 ft resulting in a inconvenient (but still reachable) landing site in Northern Idaho. Both on board tracking units functioned properly enabling the ground team to track the payload realtime throughout the launch.
The University payload was not recovered the day of launch. The field team did not have GPS units, or maps of the area the payload landed. They were able to get close enough to capture multiple tracking packet while the payload was on the ground. A small field team was assembled and was able to recover the payload on April 15th. After two days of rain, the flight capsules and their payload were undamaged.
The high school payload contained an internal heater experiment, a second high resolution digital camera, a digital video recorder, a hand-held camcorder, temperature/humidity sensors, and a simple radiation detection experiment. The internal heater was controlled by a microcontroller circuit designed by the high school students. Due to difficulties on the ground, the temperature/humidity sensors were not activated before flight. They required a serial interface and software stored on floppy disk, no high school students had the tools necessary at the launch site to successfully program the devices.
The high school payload was successfully launched and ascended at the correct rate of approximately 1000 ft/min. The balloon burst at 89,000 ft and descended rapidly to the surface. The parachute used was the backup parachute and was smaller than the system design called for. However, the capsules and payloads survived the higher impact speed with minimal damage to the capsule structures.
The tracking units in the high school payload functioned properly and enabled the payload to be recovered the same day of launch.
This was the second launch that VAST worked together with W7UQ (UI Ham radio club) to track the balloons and coordinate recovery efforts. For many students it was their first time operating on the air and found that successfully operating Ham radios is a skill that requires practice and experienced mentors. In the future, W7UQ and VAST intend to spend more time planning field communications to ensure an efficient use of resources during the recovery recovery efforts.
Timeline
0530: Assembled at Hamshack for loading and review of stragies
0600: Meet up with the high school
0630: Leave Moscow
0800: Arrive at launch site
0900: Release senior design balloon
0910: Release high school balloon
0915: Leave launch site for recovery
1030: Arrive in Palouse
1130: Arrive in Tensed
1200: Leave Tensed
1230: Retrieve high school balloon
1300: Begin search on foot for senior design balloon
1430: Give up search and return to cars
1700: Arrive in Moscow
Highlights
High School Balloon
| Max altitude reached: | 88,867 ft | ||||||
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MT300 |
?/? packets = 100% | ||||||
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Senior Design Balloon
| Max altitude reached: | 63,516 ft | ||||||
| MT300 MT8000 FA |
?/? packets = 100% |
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| Ground distance traveled, separated into ascent distance and descent distance: |
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Data
Raw Data
Data Analysis
We were able to recover acceleration, pressure, and temperature for the entire flight. However, due to a technical malfunction, we were only able to record altitude and the number of connected satellites for a minute at the beginning of the launch. The basic data is graphical format is available below; a more in-depth look at the various acceleration forces is available through the attached .xls file.
Temperature (K)
Pressure
Acceleration
Pictures
Coming Soon…
Google Earth Plot
Post Flight Equipment Status
Battery levels
~3.4 volts per pack (bad!)
Individual Team Assessment
Link to an assessment page for each team
Each team post discussion of goals and outcomes, assessment of launch, top 3 lessons learned