Blogs - Near Space Network

BASE 41

Dear friends,

BASE 41 went up came down and we brought everything home. Less than five hours and 125 miles on the vehicle for the entire trip.

Only two significant problems.

One - the 144.39 MHz APRS radio had developed some battery problem that was not noticed during the reprogramming and recharge earlier this week. The emergency battery pack that was quickly spliced into the power input failed at a connector to one of the batteries (evidentally at about 25 kft… Continue

Added by Howard Brooks on March 19, 2010 at 8:57am — No Comments

Free Easy Video Editing Software For Balloon Flights

I recently found a free video editing (or Capturing) software. The software is called Video Edit Master V1.8 can be found at: http://software.tutorialsroom.com/video-edit-master/ This software allowed me to step through the flight video intervals of "Normal Speed", 1 second and Frame by Frame. You can save individual frames as JPGs as you go along. Here are some pictures I captured:

… Continue

Added by Jason Krueger on November 18, 2009 at 3:32pm — 1 Comment

2010 balloon conference

Would anyone be interested in attending a balloon conference next summer? Taylor University is working on developing a balloon conference for faculty and their students June 22-24, 2010 (1/2 day, full day, 1/2 day). Some of the ideas include a balloon launch, poster session, breakout sessions (any ideas - technical development, curriculum???), networking, and grant development. What are your thoughts? We want this to be a way to connect and share information so your input is critical. Continue

Added by Susan Gavin on November 9, 2009 at 9:36am — 7 Comments

CNN Headline News Covers USI's Third High Altitude Balloon Flight

On the evening of Saturday October 24, 2009, following recovery of USI's high altitude balloon system late that afternoon, I posted a screen capture of the moment of burst on CNN's www.ireport.com, with a few lines of explanation. I had recalled that a small group from MIT had posted images a month and a half earlier on ireport of their low cost, high risk balloon flight, which resulted in a lot of publicity. Because we didn't have a still camera on board, w… Continue

Added by Glen Kissel on November 8, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

USI October 8, 2009 Tethered Test Exercises Team

With a fortuitous two hour break in a steady rain, USI's fall 2009 High Altitude Ballooning team began rollout for a tethered test of their balloon system this past Thursday October 8 at noon. The test was meant to exercise the team in the runup to the planned flight on Saturday October 24. This is the first high altitude ballooning experience for all of the student team members, and they coped brilliantly with the challenges of filling the balloon, preparing sample experiment pods and monitori… Continue

Added by Glen Kissel on October 9, 2009 at 10:46pm — 1 Comment

BASE 40

Launch is still a go for 8:10 Eastern Time this morning. Here is the flight prediction for 1500 ft/min ascent and burst at 80 kft. Howard

Continue

Added by Howard Brooks on October 8, 2009 at 4:09am — 3 Comments

High-Altitude Balloon Lift

After conducting many launches and seeing high-altitude balloons tangled in trees, buildings and power lines minutes after launch, I would like to share some of the techniques I use to calculate lift of a high-altitude balloon. The general rule for determining lift need for a high-altitude balloon to carry a payload into Near-Space is to multiply the entire payload weight by 1.5. (e.g. a 10 lb payload would require the balloon lift to be 15 lbs.) The lift need to carry the payload is also refer… Continue

Added by Jason Krueger on September 9, 2009 at 4:50pm — 2 Comments

Launches

The school year is going to be busy. We already have 6 launches this fall at schools who attended the CCLI workshops and have at least 3 more on TU campus. Jeff is also working on an INSGC grant and needs some stormy weather to launch - so far, no nasty weather around here but summer's not done. Continue

Added by Susan Gavin on September 1, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

Cambridge University, England high altitude ballooning program

Check out the high altitude ballooning program at Cambridge University, England. It's called CU Spaceflight. Continue

Added by Glen Kissel on August 23, 2009 at 10:19pm — No Comments

Article in Marion Chronicle Tribune June 2 2009

Taylor University becomes launch pad for balloons Workshop draws fifteen visiting universities By AJ Colley ajcolley@chronicle-tribune.com Published: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 11:09 AM EDT UPLAND — With a count backward from 10, teachers and professors on Taylor University’s campus released 10 high-altitude balloons into the sky Monday afternoon. The school officials from areas spanning both U.S. coasts craned their heads toward the clouds, following the balloons as they inched closer to space.… Continue

Added by Teresa Beam on June 11, 2009 at 11:25am — No Comments

2009 June High Altitude Balloon Workshop

June 2nd 2009 -- StratoStar Systems and Taylor University concluded a very successful High-Altitude Balloon Workshop funded by National Science Foundation (NSF). Attendees came from 17 institutions across the country. The purpose of the workshop was to help professors of Undergraduate students to implement high-altitude balloon launches in to their curriculum in order to provide an exciting hands-on application of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Payloads launch on thes… Continue

Added by Jason Krueger on June 3, 2009 at 11:46am — No Comments

Tree recovery system

After experiencing a balloon stuck in a tree top, I got to consider ways to simplify the recovery process. I saw the blog post using the ez tool (tennis ball and a string) and thought of a new approach that could be explored. Why not have a pod that contains a tennis ball and a spool of string (say 100 feet for good measure). If upon recovery the balloon is found to be in a tree, issue an electronic command to the pod to deploy the tennis ball. The ball, dropping straight to earth, would have a… Continue

Added by Sam SanGregory on April 8, 2009 at 9:48am — 2 Comments

HALO II - Direct line contact information for Taylor University

Today's direct line contact numbers: (765) 998-4375 (765) 998-4373 These numbers are to be used when direct contact outside of Skype is necessary. Continue

Added by Jonathan Stoffel on April 4, 2009 at 7:50am — No Comments

New Members

Hello. We are a group of Electrical Engineering Undergraduate students from Temple University. Out names our Andrew Corp, Nabeel Adeel, Oleksandr Martynov, and Yibo Shen. We are involved with the HALO II project. We are also involved in a high altitude ballooning project for our Senior Design project. The goal to the senior design project is to launch an untethered balloon that has a temperature sensor, pressure sensor, humidity sensor and GPS, and transmit the measured data while the balloon is… Continue

Added by Andrew Corp on March 25, 2009 at 3:48pm — No Comments

Atmospheric Electricity: A Project Abstract

This is the electrometer pod

This is the electrometer circuit and bat… Continue

Added by Jonathan Juhl on March 24, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

BASE 34 successfully completed

BASE 34 was successfully completed on 12 March 2009. Launched from the roof of the Julian Science and Mathematics Center on the DePauw campus, the flight reached a maximum altitude of 103,800 feet. Landing occurred between Potsdam and Laura, Ohio. The payload landed in a tree,

but… Continue

Added by Howard Brooks on March 13, 2009 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Oral Roberts University Launch [2/21/2009]

Zach and I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma to do a CCLI launch for Oral Roberts University. I have to say that the students picked up on everything very fast and began the process of readying the command and payloads for the launch in the morning with vigor. As they worked, a new experiment came into view…..A live animal test which would be essentially basic; would a mouse live in space? We expected the immediate answer to be an emphatic “NO!,” but a certain amount of hope filled those around me who ob… Continue

Added by Matthew D Garver on March 11, 2009 at 11:20pm — No Comments

High-Altitude Ballooning Equipment and TSA

Last year I presented a report on the HALO I project at the National Space Grant Directors meeting in DC. The presentation went well and I met John Kosmatka the director of the California Space Grant and professor at University of California - San Diego (UCSD). After about 6 moths John contacted me to conduct a launch with his students in CA. Matt Garver and myself made it to the airport on time, went through security with no problems. We were sitting at our gate when we heard this, "Will Matth… Continue

Added by Jason Krueger on March 3, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

All Blog Posts (18)