[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...20&start=20

We began talkin about a UMSF balloon - and who know what might happen if enough people think about something hard enough, thoroughly enough and long enough.

How's about this as a starting point.
http://vpizza.org/~jmeehan/balloon/ with http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/part101.html as an important regulatory start point (I'm going to look up the UK regs for this as well)

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/nova1launch.html is also very impressive - all done in the UK

This http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/...video_podc.html is particularly impressive - I like the multiple-cameras slant.

Anyway - thought I'd get a thread going - this is an idea I like too much to let it gather dust in a corner - the one thing that I think would be nice to achieve is self-portraiture of some sort - think Beagle 2's WAM etc....perhaps in a corner of the FOV of one of/the imaging system. What sort of limit's should we set ourselves? 1kg 10x10x20cm? (sort of 2U Cubesat-on-a-diet budget)

Doug

[DEChengst]

This sounds pretty exciting In my mind this can be something with a lot of potential. First starting out with simple designs just to learn how to build, launch, take data and finally make a safe landing. The next step would be to fly real scientific instruments. The final step would be to fly on a commercial suborbital rocket. With companies like Masten Space aiming for $250 per kilogram to 100 kilometers altitude, I really think this is something we could pull off.

Before we start to do any real design work we first have to think about how to run a project like this. What software tools do we use to design the hardware ? How do we make sure parts designed by different teams are compatible with each other ? How do we communicate and share designs ? Perhaps the first step would be to look at how open source software projects are run. To put it as we say in .nl: "a good start is half the work".

The second thing that came to mind is that to achieve mission success, we need to keep things simple and cost effective. One way to achieve this would be to use off the shelf components, and thinking of creative ways to use them. One crazy idea that popped up in my head was to use MIDI for timing and synchronization.

Last night my mind kept racing and I couldn't stop myself from thinking about technical issues as well I mainly thought of ways how to decide when to open the chute:

• Open the chute as soon as the payload is released from the balloon
• Open the chute after x seconds
• Open the chute at x meters per second
• Open the chute at x meters altitude
• Open the chute at x g-load.
• Open the chute at x meters altitude and y meters per second

I guess the first option would be the easiest to trigger, but also has the highest risk of the chute not opening properly. With the last option you can calculate the dynamic pressure in real time and open the chute based on that. I think this would have the highest chance of the chute opening properly, but also has the highest risk of the triggering going wrong.

Can't wait until first ATLO

[djellison]

I mainly thought of ways how to decide when to open the chute:

Balloon
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Chute
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Gondola


Balloon bursts - chute opens automatically - couldn't be simpler. It's worked for hundreds of amateur HAB's.

Doug