Beyond 62

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!