High altitude balloon payload, from Sable-3 discussion Options

[RJG]

Live video stream from a US high altitude balloon launch now running at http://www.batc.tv/ch_live.php for those who are interested

Launch expected at 15:30UTC / 16:30 BST (2009.04.11)

Rob

[ElkGroveDan]

Pioneers lose first cheese in space

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/art...9B62E1EA53E81F9

[djellison]

No no - they found it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/conten...s_feature.shtml

The CU Spaceflight guys helped them out - hopefully Ed will get to taste THE SPACE CHEESE

True story - in double blind tests 9/10 people preferred port that had been up to 30k and back to a non-flown control.

[nprev]

No question about it: That brave Space Cheese really did cut the mustard!

(Yeah, don't shove...I'm leaving, I'm leaving!)

[climber]

Another one or is it the same as above?
Anyway they claim it costs $150 and reached 93.000 ft: http://space.1337arts.com/

[djellison]

Pah - 93kft. 100+ is where the fun starts

Lots of teams now doing this. The Cambridge boys almost had a launch this w'end - but they needed a bit more dev time on their 2.0 avionics board.

[djellison]

Using my Yaesu FT817 and a dualband monopole about 3m off the ground - I was able to succesfully receive RTTY from two payloads yesterday - Icarus and Xaben

One string received, for example:
M6DGE : icarus,708,13:09:45,52.244063,0.693690,30691,94.45,113.5,5.6,-3.7*28
http://www.robertharrison.org/listen/view.php

I'm this listed on http://www.robertharrison.org/listen/loggers.php
M6DGE 2009-11-07 14:13:42 52.60 -1.15 FT817 MOONRAKER 26 2009-11-07 13:08:33

I only got 26 packets in, as I could only get out to the shed about 10 seconds before the first payload burst.

BUT - I now know the system works, and just my £49 monopole from Moonraker could easily hear and decode 10mw at a range of around 140km. The antenna is going to be mounted higher in the future - possibly a deployable mast ( so I can always change hardware ) or on the roof of the house.

[lyford]

Possibly off topic (admins move this to Chit Chat if so), and apologies to those in the UK if you have seen this already, but a cool video nonetheless:
Space Chair

[djellison]

BallastHalo3 launching in a few hours. Should fly south across the UK testing ballast dropping method for a potential zero-pressure balloon for a trans atlantic attempt. I hope to get home in time to track the later part of the flight.

http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

Raw packets here - http://www.robertharrison.org/listen/view.php (look out for M6DGE, that's me)
Tracked data hopefully here - http://spacenear.us/tracker/
Log of loggers here - http://www.robertharrison.org/listen/loggers.php

[djellison]

Payload away - I'll be home in an hr to hopefully do some tracking

[djellison]

Currently getting good packets from 213km range on 10mW Sweet!

Yagi's just jammed in the window - not even on a good bearing and there's buildings in the way

[centsworth_II]

So, it's off to parts unknown? I hope there was no intention of ever recovering the payload.
EDIT: From the latest turn to the East, I should ask if there are any mission crew in France.

[djellison]

Leaning out the window - one packet at a time - I managed to get 339km range. going to try and see if I can do better, but not hopefull

[djellison]

I got it to 48.8570,0.2401 - 427km

It burst not long later.

[Marz]

While watching Doug's video, I stumbled across this project:

http://www.ntexbp.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTOCy7Q7Cug...feature=related

"North Texas Balloon Project (NTEXBP) is planned for launch about 8:30 am on August 8, 2009 from the municipal airport in Hillsboro, Texas, just south of Fort Worth and Dallas. Two payload packages containing sensors and amateur radios will be carried to nearly 100,000 feet in about 90 minutes by a helium balloon and return via parachute in about 50 minutes. Mobile recovery teams will use position reports from the onboard GPS and APRS transmitter on 144.390 MHz and radio direction finding techniques to recover the payloads.

... A cross band repeater will be activated soon after launch. Uplink is 445.800 MHz and downlink is 147.560 MHz. At the peak altitude ham radio operators can contact each other using the cross band repeater. The radios used normally have a range of about 5 to 10 miles, but that range will be extended to about 500 miles at the peak altitude."

It wasn't a smooth flight. "All packages functioned as expected until near 90,000 feet. At that time we lost contact with all packages. Ten minutes later some of the hunters heard the two meter beacon much like we hear when it is on the ground. After a few minutes of hunting the packages were recovered."