4 ms·

Ours stayed aloft for about 2-3 hours when I did a launch with my college ham radio club! I can't remember exactly. It got up to ~60,000ft and then the balloon

by mdszy 7y ago

Ours stayed aloft for about 2-3 hours when I did a launch with my college ham radio club! I can't remember exactly. It got up to ~60,000ft and then the balloon burst, quickly falling back down. We didn't have much of a parachute, so a larger parachute could've slowed the descent greatly. I'm not sure what the laws are about size of parachute/any required descent rates though.

mikece 7y ago
Does it make sense to have dual balloons: one smaller one designed to burst at a target altitude (eg: 100,000 feet) and the other, more durable balloon, meant to provide a very slow descent, much slower a parachute? That could extend endurance aloft to several hours.
- mdszy 7y ago
  That sounds reasonable to me. Again, not sure as to the regulations around that, if you're allowed to use a balloon that doesn't burst at any point or anything. Also, realistic bursting altitude is closer to ~60,000ft for most balloons, just FYI.
sizzzzlerz 7y ago
So did your chute slow the payload down enough to keep it from being damaged? Do you need insurance against it coming down on someone or their property?
- mdszy 7y ago
  1. Yes, but we also made sure that our payload was properly protected. Basically, it was a paint can with foam inside and the payload stuffed into the foam. It definitely didn't slow it down TOO much and without proper protection, the payload would have likely been destroyed. Also, the foam was necessary for thermal reasons too, the electronics needed to stay warm enough to operate when ambient temperature is -100F. 2. We didn't purchase any specifically, but given we were an official campus organization, we would have likely gone through them had something like that happened. Given the rural area we were launching from, and where we knew it would travel, the likelihood of this happening is close enough to 0 that we didn't have to worry.

by mdszy 7y ago

mikece 7y ago

Does it make sense to have dual balloons: one smaller one designed to burst at a target altitude (eg: 100,000 feet) and the other, more durable balloon, meant to provide a very slow descent, much slower a parachute? That could extend endurance aloft to several hours.

mdszy 7y ago
That sounds reasonable to me. Again, not sure as to the regulations around that, if you're allowed to use a balloon that doesn't burst at any point or anything. Also, realistic bursting altitude is closer to ~60,000ft for most balloons, just FYI.

sizzzzlerz 7y ago

So did your chute slow the payload down enough to keep it from being damaged? Do you need insurance against it coming down on someone or their property?

mdszy 7y ago
1. Yes, but we also made sure that our payload was properly protected. Basically, it was a paint can with foam inside and the payload stuffed into the foam. It definitely didn't slow it down TOO much and without proper protection, the payload would have likely been destroyed. Also, the foam was necessary for thermal reasons too, the electronics needed to stay warm enough to operate when ambient temperature is -100F. 2. We didn't purchase any specifically, but given we were an official campus organization, we would have likely gone through them had something like that happened. Given the rural area we were launching from, and where we knew it would travel, the likelihood of this happening is close enough to 0 that we didn't have to worry.