Next Mission: Furiosity set to launch in February [Update 12/01/11]
by Marc on Sep.07, 2011, under Furiosity
The last two prototypes allowed me to get a better understanding of the challenges, the possibilities and decide on what I want to focus on the next mission.
My main goal is to perfect a modular high altitude balloon bus: A simple , low-cost, general purpose high altitude platform able to carry a variety of payloads. It will allow more launches for less money.
I will primarily focus on designing and building the bus. I would like another team to work on the payload(s). The latter will be flown free of charge.
I am currently trying to partner up with a high school. I’d love to involve some students, give them the opportunity to fly a small experiment and get excited about space!
The next mission is entitled Furiosity and is scheduled for launch in November.
Update (12/01/11):
I have been able to create a partnership with Valley Christian High School in Dublin, CA. I cannot give all the details yet but some students will work on a couple payload systems for my next launch. I have pushed the launch back to February to allow them to work on it. More details to come in December.
MSP-2 Summary
by Marc on Apr.11, 2011, under MSP-2
| Launch Date | 4/9/2011 |
| Launch Point | 38.494923,-121.75044 near Davis, CA |
| Retrieval Date | 4/10/2011 |
| Landing Point | 37.720520, -121.615260 |
| Payload Mass | 1.7 kg (~3.75lbs) |
| Balloon | Kaymont KCI TX1200 |
| Balloon Lift | ~3.5 kg Gross Lift |
| Highest Altitude | 29,133m (95,581ft) |
| Sensors | Internal and External Temperature Sensors DS1620 Photo Resistor VT935G-B |
| Cameras | Canon PowerShot SD1200IS + 4Gb SD Card (photo script w/CHDK) Canon PowerShot SD880IS + 8Gb SD Card (video mode) |
| Batteries | (SD880IS) Canon Battery Pack NB-5L (Battery Life 36min-ish) (SD1200IS) Canon Battery Pack NB-6L (Battery Life 4h10-ish) |
| Camera Shots | 1314 pictures (3648*2736) (1.84Gb) |
| Video Camera | Go Pro HD Hero + 32GB SD Card + Battery Backpack |
| Movie | 1 in 320 * 160 px (36min) |
| Computer System | Parallax HomeWork Board |
| Communications | Byonics Micro-Trak 8000 FA + Byonics GPS4 SPOT Personal Tracker Motorola i296 + accutracking application |
| Parachute | 6ft Parachute |
The main difference with MSP-1 resides in the tracking system.
I got the technical radio operator license in order to get a HAM radio call sign. My call sign is KJ6MUD.
I was then able to use an APRS tracking system. I chose the Byonics Micro-Trak 8000 FA for its simplicity and light weight. The radio transmitter was connected to the Byonics GPS4 which does not have the 60k ft altitude limit.
Tracking the payload after the launch was very easy and accurate. It was set to send its position every minute.
Flight Path from launch to landing
MSP-2 at its highest altitude
All trackers worked very well, each showing the same data.
Flight Data
Despite being a lot heavier than MSP-1 (1kg), MSP-2 (1.7Kg) reached an altitude of 29,133m (95,581 ft).
Landing site from Launch site: 87km (54 miles)
Flight duration: 2h10min
Average ascent rate: 343 m/min (1125ft/min)
Average descent rate: 687m/min (2254 ft/min)
Max fall rate : 206.4 km/h (128.3 mph) at 23,239.5 m (76,245 ft)
Descent rate at landing: 22.4km/h (14 mph)
Sensors
The computer system did not work as planned. The data from the external temperature sensor and photo resistor does not make any sense. It could be due to a bad mounting (no protection against the wind and the sun…).
The micro-controller had an operating temperature of -40 to +85 °C (-40 to +185 °F) but the internal temperature sensor stopped working at -20°C (-4°F). It had been thoroughly tested at low temperatures. It could be due to hardware failure (wire disconnection?).
The internal temperature sensor stopped working during the descent.
The camera sensors worked the whole time (Temperature in °C):
Battery Voltage (in mV):
This is actually quite surprising. I thought that 3600mV was the hard deck for Canon cameras. But I wrote an intervalometer script in ubasic to disable the LCD and take pictures every 10 seconds. Disabling the LCD had a substantial impact on the battery life.
The camera battery lasted 4h20min and took 1314 pictures. The standard battery life was 260 pictures!
Pictures
The ascent:
Travis AFB
The San Francisco Bay Area from 95500 ft:
South Bay
San Francisco (You can guess the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge)
North Bay
Sacramento Valley
Recovery
MSP-2 landed after a 2h10min flight. It landed in a wind farm, east of Livermore, CA.
Despite having the GPS coordinates, when typed into the Google maps application, it did not return the location entered but the location of the closest road, several hundred yards away. We couldn’t find it the first day, I had to come back the next day.
When it landed, the winds got so strong (40+mph), the payload got dragged about 200 yards uphill.
What is left from the balloon. It does not completely burst:
The lines are twisted all the way down and the GoPro Camera is gone:
Despite the scotch tape and the super-lock strips, most of the devices are now moving free.
Conclusion
- Tracking MSP-2 was easy and reliable. (Using APRS was definitely the way to go)
- Recovering it was hard; Next time do not rely on your mobile devices as it’s neither convenient nor precise
- Secure the critical devices better! (trackers, tracker batteries, Gopro…)
- The computer system and sensors need to be soldered all together
- You definitely need to be 2 to launch a high altitude balloon
My most sincere thanks to my friend TJ without whom I would not have been able to make it.
MSP-1: Summary
by Marc on Mar.21, 2011, under MSP-1
| Launch Date | 12/31/2010 |
| Launch Point | 38.494923,-121.75044 near Davis, CA |
| Retrieval Date | 01/26/2011 |
| Landing Point | 38.00134 , -120.80861 |
| Payload Mass | ~1 kg |
| Balloon | Kaymont KCI TX1200 |
| Balloon Lift | ~3.5 kg Gross Lift |
| Highest Altitude | ~30Kms (~100,000ft) |
| Sensors | External Temperature Sensor LM34 |
| Camera | Canon PowerShot Sd880IS + 4Gb SD Card |
| Battery | Canon Battery Pack NB-5L (Battery Life 1h30-ish) |
| Camera Shots | 613 pictures (2816*2112) (1Gb of pictures) |
| Video Camera | Go Pro HD Hero + 32GB SD Card |
| Movies | 4 (total movie time 2h05) |
| Computer System | Parallax HomeWork Board + Datalogger |
| Communications | SPOT Personal Tracker & Motorola i296 + accutracking application |
| Parachute | 6ft Parachute |
The external temperature sensor failed but I recorded the values from the camera temp (Celcius) and voltage sensors over time (minutes):
Temperatures from the Camera sensors
Voltage from the Camera sensor
The Canon camera and GoPro video-camera stopped working mid-flight because the batteries died. The voltage drops are due to the flash (while still on the ground). It should have been disabled.
The GoPro is still functioning very well. So are all the other trackers and computer systems.
The Canon Camera’s video mode and on/off button are not working anymore. It is still able to take pictures with normal quality.
The communication cutoff is due to the camera module being placed directly above the tracking module. With no satellite acquisition both devices stopped transmitting any position report (even if the phone had good GSM reception).
The bad mounting and the very thin shroud lines induced the payload spin.
All in-flight pictures:
Part 4: How to contact the FAA?
by Marc on Jan.31, 2011, under Contact the FAA, How To
It’s Legal
The first thing to know is that it is legal. It’s regulated by the FAA under Part 101 Subpart D of their regulations.
If you read the whole Part 101 regulation you’ll notice at the very start that the regulation only applies to unmanned balloons with payloads heavier than 4 pounds. Note that you should still follow all of the rules in Subpart D to make the experience as smooth as possible.
I was a little worried about talking with the FAA. Especially since I was not sure of the phone number and requirements.
If you were to send a big balloon to Near Space, you would have to contact the right ATC (air traffic control) office. But in our case, the ATC office doesn’t actually have anything to do with small unmanned balloons.
What you need to do is create a NOTAM (Notice To Airmen).
NOTAMs are notifications issued for hazardous reasons, such as:
- Air-shows,
- Parachute jumps
- Closed runways
- Erupting Volcanos
- …
Who do I need to call?
The ATC office I talked to gave me the phone number for Prescott Flight Service Station (877-487-6867).
I believe that they handle all the NOTAM reporting for the West side of the US. Where does West start? No idea, you should call your ATC office to make sure. I know that many people launching balloons from different states (CA, UT, NV, …) called that specific office.
What does the FAA need to know?
What they ask you differs from one person to another.
What they asked me was:
- Date and time of the launch ?(You need to notify the FAA between 24 hours and 6 hours before the launch)
- Location of the launch? (City, States + GPS coordinates)
- How far it is from any major city, airports, air force base? (It needs to be 5 miles away from everything)
- What is the ascent rate?
That was it for me. It was pretty straightforward.
Be prepared to be asked:
- At what time will it reached 60,000ft up?
- At what time will it reached 60,000ft down?
- At what time will it land?
- Where will it land?
Theoretically, you should also notify the NOTAM station when you actually reach 60k feet up and down, if you lose communication with your balloon, and when your payload has landed. Realistically, no one cared when I called and that was fine by me.
Why 60,000ft? Because most of the air traffic flies below this altitude.
How to choose your launch location and predict the flight’s trajectory?
When looking for your launch site, you need to think about 3 main factors:
- You must not have any fence, phone pole, electric pole, tall tree around you.
- You must take into consideration the winds which can carry your payload up to 200 miles away.
- You must take into consideration the estimated landing area.
- You must take into consideration the estimated flight path.
1) You really do not want all your work to end up stuck in a tree or attached to a 100ft high electric line.
2) This is critical. There are 2 web tools: This one and that one. Their prediction are, of course, not 100% similar or accurate but they will give you a good idea of the flight direction.
3 & 4) Remember that you need to be able to recover the payload quickly (Batteries might die) and be able to receive signals from the landing location. Avoid highly populated areas or areas with lakes, mountains or dense vegetation.
Note that you need to make sure your launch site is more than 5 miles away from any airport/AFB.
MSP-1 Recovered and Successful!
by Marc on Jan.27, 2011, under MSP-1, Recover your space balloon
Against all odds, I recovered my first high altitude balloon (MSP-1) 26 days after its launch.
I launched it on December 31st 2010 and thought I had lost it. But out of the blue, on January 25th 2011 at 7:42am, I received a manual Check/In message from the SPOT messenger sent with MSP-1.
The location reported was: 38.00134 , -120.80861. About 60 miles south east from our launch site. I scrambled a recovery operation the next day to find it.
Once arrived, my assumptions were confirmed: it was a private property used to breed cows. I went to the closest farm to inquire about the balloon and get their permission to look for it. After waiting one hour and a half and seeing no one, I started to hike up towards the location reported. I quickly understood that cows do not like to be disturbed, especially when their calves are around.
As I was walking downhill and reaching the estimated position, I saw no signs of my balloon and started to despair… until I spotted the red fabric of the parachute.
Note the pieces of Styrofoam everywhere. They are too small and spread out to be due to the impact.
MSP-1 used a 6 foot wide parachute for a descent rate inferior than 15ft/s. Even if it landed hard on the only rock of the field, it would have not have created so much damage.
The Spot messenger was hanging out of the tracking module’s remains by a piece of scotch tape. You can also see what was the on-board computer system.
The payload was divided in two parts. The camera module and the tracking module.
The first was almost intact, just covered with the usual dirt and mud after 26 days in a field. The tracking module was however completely destroyed. I found pieces of Styrofoam 20 ft away from each other. Moreover I found the USB battery charger, a USB key and some cables several feet away from each other and they had been pushed into the ground.
So the only explanation I have is that the cows trampled on it a lot. It freed the SPOT messenger which somehow sent me a message.
I retrieved the SD cards and log files and here are the results: The balloon flew 96 minutes before it burst. With a theoretical ascent rate of 320m/min. We reached over 100,000 ft (30km) high.
A few seconds after the launch
Under the clouds
Above the clouds
Facing the sun at max altitude
(Note how low the sun is. It’s 4pm in December)
Facing East getting dark
At 100,000ft #1
At 100,000ft #2
Snapshot #1 from the on-board video camera
Snapshot #2 from the on-board video camera
The balloon burst and is now hanging from the payload
Some pictures are blurry because the payload was severely spinning the whole time. Despite everything, most of the equipment (cameras, trackers, main PCB) can be re-used, which will be a huge cost relief for MSP-2.
I have a lot of open questions right now:
- Why did the camera stopped working on the way down?
- Why did the computer system stopped recording the external temperature?
- Why was payload spinning so badly?
- Why did the transmissions stop before the launch?
- …
It will take me some time to collect and analyze all the data and understand what exactly happened but this maiden flight brings a lot of knowledge and exciting new opportunities!
