4 ms·

I'm beginning to think that a majority of high-altitude balloon experiments are facilitated by amateur radio APRS transmitters. Balloon launches are also huge P

by kawfey 7y ago

I'm beginning to think that a majority of high-altitude balloon experiments are facilitated by amateur radio APRS transmitters. Balloon launches are also huge PR events and great for students to get involved into science (and ham radio!). You can see almost every balloons with a ham radio payload currently in the air, in real time at https://tracker.habhub.org/ https://tracker.habhub.org/

jcims 7y ago
This is one of those projects that I keep telling myself I’m going to do ‘next summer’. There’s just enough detail for a successful flight that you really have to start working on it months in advance, which is why I never seem to be able to get my balloon off the ground. One thing I really would like to do is get a stabilized camera and experiment with some rigging that reduces payload rocking. A steerable parafoil recovery is also rolling around in the head. All of these ideas exacerbate the procrastination situation lol.
- dylan604 7y ago
  I've done one of these smaller launches with GoPros up to ~90k. It was a very fun project including the research on what equipment to use on our budget, the flight predictions to find a good launch point, to the actual launch and recovery. I would highly recommend doing it to anyone thinking about it. We were a group of adults, but it is definitely kid friendly. I still want to do another launch with improvements learned from the first launch. All of the improvements definitely require a much larger balloon (meaning more expensive). I now have friends with HAM license so we can use a radio for real-time data transmission. I have my Arduino flight computer with all of the sensors completed. The camera stabilization was the biggest thing I wanted to solve. Many ideas rolling around in my head as well. Might need a 3rd or 4th flight to finesse, you know, for science!

by kawfey 7y ago

jcims 7y ago

This is one of those projects that I keep telling myself I’m going to do ‘next summer’. There’s just enough detail for a successful flight that you really have to start working on it months in advance, which is why I never seem to be able to get my balloon off the ground. One thing I really would like to do is get a stabilized camera and experiment with some rigging that reduces payload rocking. A steerable parafoil recovery is also rolling around in the head. All of these ideas exacerbate the procrastination situation lol.

dylan604 7y ago
I've done one of these smaller launches with GoPros up to ~90k. It was a very fun project including the research on what equipment to use on our budget, the flight predictions to find a good launch point, to the actual launch and recovery. I would highly recommend doing it to anyone thinking about it. We were a group of adults, but it is definitely kid friendly. I still want to do another launch with improvements learned from the first launch. All of the improvements definitely require a much larger balloon (meaning more expensive). I now have friends with HAM license so we can use a radio for real-time data transmission. I have my Arduino flight computer with all of the sensors completed. The camera stabilization was the biggest thing I wanted to solve. Many ideas rolling around in my head as well. Might need a 3rd or 4th flight to finesse, you know, for science!