Space Balloon

Hive13 Project
Space Program
Status: Active
Start Date: 04/29/2010

What

As part of the Hackerspaces in Space competition, Hive13 will be sending a weather balloon to approximately 70,000 feet above sea level to capture photographs.

Equipment

Needed

• GPS (G1)
• Cellphone (G1)
• Balloon
• Camera (Canons)
• Housing for everything (cooler)
• Parachute
• Helium
  • http://www.amusementrental.com/equipment.php -- $20 for tank, $10 for 100lbs helium - about $150 for the minimum amount we need (70 cubic feet at minimum)
  • Place by me (reportingsjr) rents full tanks (230-250 cubic feet) for $150 and a $50 refundable deposit
• Altimeter
  • Could we build our own, like this?
  • Parachute deployment
• Tether

Acquired

• 8' Latex Weather Balloon
• Chris' Flip HD camera
  • Have run into a problem with the camera. Because of the FAT32 filesystem it uses, a single video is limited to a maximum size of 4GB. The first video I shot was 57 minutes long, and the wildly gyrating video we can expect from the balloon will be a good deal shorter. For the first launch we can probably just hit record right before launch and take what we get.
• Ryan's Android G1
• Styrofoam coolers
• Parachute
• 2x Canon A530's w/ CHDK for time lapse

Construction

Overview

Environment

The payload will experience:

• temperatures ranging from ... to ...
• moisture
• thin atmosphere
• wind, g forces
• shocks, crashes

Launch

FAA Rules Etc

Hey, read these ok?

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=ea968eea871ed9ab2380f6d979eaa7a6&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.15&idno=14

To Do List

• Figure out what combination of equipment we need to use to stay under the $250 limit.
• Figure out what we need to do with the FAA to launch balloon
  • As I understand it, payloads of under 4lbs do not require FAA notification, but it couldn't hurt to get confirmation. Fuzz 12:39, 6 May 2010 (UTC)
• Find a good a launch site
  • Someplace that is not ... "within the lateral boundaries of the surface areas of Class B, Class C, Class D, or Class E airspace designated for an airport;"

Are You Crazy

Probably

Participants

Jason

Chris

Chris Davis

Jon (reportingsjr)

Links

• http://www.parallax.com/tabid/567/Default.aspx
• http://www.workshop88.com/space/
• http://arielwaldman.com/2010/03/25/hacking-space-with-hackerspaces/
• http://spacehack.org/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LauraFoy/TechFest-2010-Microsoft-ICE-Image-Composite-Editor/ Might be able to use M$ ICE to make some high res shots from the videos.
• http://apteryx.hibal.org/

Equipment Etc

• http://cgi.ebay.com/GIANT-Weather-Balloon-Fun-Unusual-Birthday-Gift-8-Dia-/370250099031?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5634a02957#ht_1598wt_1165
• http://www.theflip.com/en-us/Products/mino.aspx
• https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Icarus
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Android-G1-Serial-To-Arduino/

Other Groups

• http://www.eoss.org/
• http://space.1337arts.com/guide
• http://www.heatsynclabs.org/wiki/Nearspace_Balloon_2
• http://www.hexoc.com/wb/pages/hab/ferret.php
• http://www.toddfun.com/2010/04/10/ansr-balloon-launch-55/
• http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/07/successful_high_altitude.html
• http://www.howstuffworks.com/helium2.htm

Just Pics

• http://www.thefintels.com/aer/hab1.htm
• http://www.thefintels.com/aer/hab2.htm
• http://picasaweb.google.com/blossomlandara/Aug2008Balloon?feat=directlink