Flight 2
My project launched a payload with GPS, camera, sensors and communications to an altitude of 30km. I obtained most parts ready years ago, but only recently had time to finish it.
High altitude ballooning is an emerging hobby, since price of GPS and communications equipment has gotten quite low.
It is an excellent hobby for people fascinated by space flight and telerobotics and has many learning aspects —
from systems design to electronics design to software engineering. There is also an exciting risk factor, namely, that you could lose your precious electronics if something malfunctions.
In this project, many of my interest and knowledge areas came together. Also, I have verified that the Earth is indeed round and that space is black.
— Alexei Karpenko
Mission at a glance:
| Description | Value |
|---|---|
| Launch Date | 2007-10-08 |
| Launch Time | 17:22:30 UTC (13:22:30 local) |
| Launch Point | 43.951532,-81.554507 near Lucknow, Ontario, Canada |
| Landing Time | 19:21:20 UTC (15:21:20 local) |
| Landing Point | 43.711977,-80.790952 |
| Payload Mass | ~1.5 kg |
| Balloon | KCI 1200 Totex Sounding Balloon |
| Balloon Lift | ~4.2 kg Gross, ~3 kg Net; with payload resulting in Free Lift of >1.4 kg |
| Helium Volume | ~4.06 m3 |
| Flight Trajectory |  halo2-pictures.kmz (with pictures), halo2-videos.kmz (with videos) |
| Highest Altitude | Over 30 km |
| Sensors | Temperature, Absolute Pressure |
| Camera | Canon PowerShot A510 with tilt servo (2048x1536 pictures, 320x240 videos) |
| Camera Shots | 269 pictures, 58 videos (30 seconds each) |
| Battery | LiSO2, 5 cells in series resulting in 15V, operating time (8-16 hours) |
| Main Computer | Verdex ARM single-board computer, 600MHz, USB host |
| Communications | GM862-GPS cellular module with SiRF III GPS and Python interpreter, 900MHz XTend Modem |
| Parachute | 48" Military Surplus Parachute, theoretical descend rate of about 20km/h |
Setup
Hardware
The hardware consisted of a redundant communications and computer system with sensors, servo and camera.
The first communications system consisted of MaxStream XTend — a long-range 900MHz radio transceiver — connected to a Verdex 600MHz single-board ARM computer via serial port. The second communications system was a Telit GM862-GPS cellular module with built-in GPS and built-in python interpreter.
GM862-GPS module was a self-sufficient GPS tracker that would accept requests via SMS and send responses via SMS as well. It also monitored latitude and longitude and performed a payload cutdown when they went over the constraints. That was to prevent landing in a lake, since I am surrounded by them.
Verdex single-board computer controlled the camera, logged GPS positions and sensor data and communicated with the ground via the 900MHz radio modem.
An Atmel ATmega32 microcontroller was used to control two relays (cutdown and camera power), read temperature sensor via SPI, read pressure sensor via ADC and control camera tilt servo. It was connected to the Verdex via serial port. One pin was connected to GM862-GPS so that the module could request a cutdown.
Camera used was a Canon PowerShot A510. Flight 1 used USB to remotely capture pictures from the Verdex and save them on the USB key as well as scale them down for ground downlinking. Unfortunately this system was not very reliable and broke on that flight at an altitude of 6km. So for this flight (Flight 2), I decided to wire the Verdex directly to camera buttons (via GPIO pins) and use electrical signal to "press them." That also had an advantage because I could switch the camera to video mode. The disadvantage was that pictures could no longer be downlinked, since they were stored on a 4GB SD card inserted into the camera. As a fail-safe, camera was regularly restarted by cutting power via a relay.
This is actually the system as flown on Flight 1. Flight 2 hardware has the following changes:
- Camera controlled via buttons (power, focus, shoot, movie mode) and not USB anymore
- Second relay added to regularly cycle power to the camera (anti-crash measure)
- Switched camera to Canon A510 and added 3V power converter
- Removed USB hub and connected USB memory key directly
Software
GM862-GPS ran a python script that would accept SMS messages requesting GPS position and reply with position also using SMS. The script is based on nick84's code with bug fixes, modifications and additional commands. The commands that the script accepted were: request GPS position, cutdown the payload, cancel cutdown, restart GPS, restart module.
Unfortunately, the SiRF III GPS chip of GM862-GPS breaks at an altitude over 24km as noticed with Flight 1 which was nearly lost because of that bug. I tried to reflash SiRF III firmware before Flight 2 by soldering to the internal SiRF binary port (Port A) but was unsucessful (more on that later). So I just added automatic rebooting of the GPS module into the Python script when there has been no fix for over 10 minutes. Also, a couple of failure modes were detected — for example, 3D fix, but 0 satellites (this was the failure mode for Flight 1). Because of this code, the payload was not lost (but the GPS stopped working when the payload was above 24km).
The Verdex ran a few shell scripts as well as custom programs. One custom program (gpslog) would talk to gpsd and log GPS position to a file. Programs temperature and altitude would talk to the ATmega32 to return sensor status from the temperature sensor and the pressure sensor. The camera script controlled the taking of pictures and tilting of camera. It would also restart the camera periodically as a fail-safe.
Communication with Verdex took place via shell over the 900MHz radio modem. It was just a regular linux terminal.
The ground software consisted of a C# program running on a Laptop with Windows XP. It communicated with a cellphone via bluetooth to send and receive SMS to/from the payload. It also communicated with the ground 900Mhz modem. The retrieved position was shown on Google Earth via a program called GooPS. The ground software also connected to a bluetooth GPS receiver and forwarded the position to Google Earth via GooPS. That enabled to see positions of both the payload and the car in Google Earth. As a bonus, the software was also able to forward positions via WiFi to other chase cars so that they could follow the action.
Launch
Flight trajectory was predicted by the excellent University of Wyoming's Balloon Trajectory program. It grabs up-to-date wind data for different altitudes and is able to produce a predicted flight trajectory for Google Earth. From Flight 1 I already knew that it was pretty accurate.
Launch was very smooth, because our team was already experienced from the previous launches. We launched from a farm about 110km from home. That's because of the direction of jetstream — if we would have launched from home, it would have landed in a lake.
Flight time was just a bit over 2 hours and I didn't have contact with the capsule most of the time. I think I need to use a directional yagi antenna instead of the omni-directional high-gain antenna that I used. Cellphone connection was lost pretty early on, 900MHz radio worked to an altitude of 5km or so. After the capsule landed, I received an SMS with position and we went there and retrieved it. It was a farmer's field — we asked for permission to retrieve the capsule from his property.
When we got close to the capsule, we saw that it landed pretty hard. The parachute was very entangled with what remained of the burst balloon. It turns out that the Verdex became disconnected, but the GM862-GPS module worked fine. Later, I calculated impact speed to be over 60km/h. Luckily all hardware survived and works fine. This is because the padding was very good — thick layers of styrofoam were used in important places, components were hot-glued and separated with styrofoam and the comparatively heavy battery was at the bottom and strongly fixed.
Below is a video of the launch and retrieval.
Download Video
Results
Pictures
Videos
Panoramas
Sensors
Conclusion
This launch was very successful. Things to improve for next one: reflash SiRF III chip so that it works at an altitude over 24km, use yagi antenna instead of omni-directional antenna, improve parachute system.
Contrary to this flight, parachute worked well in Flight 1. Impact speed was 27km/h and a witness described the landing being smooth. But with this flight, Flight 2, the balloon didn't burst as cleanly as in Flight 1, so there was a higher chance for it to tangle. I think I just need to add a tensioner (i.e. a ring) underneath the parachute for the next flight to fix this problem.
Special thanks to:
My family (my dad, Ivan, Alexander and Kate), Alex Kennberg and Richard for launch support operations
#highaltitude on FreeNode for advice regarding balloon inflation
Next flight should be in summer 2008. I plan to fix the radio systems so that uninterrupted contact is maintained.
— Alexei Karpenko
Data
Many more pictures and videos were captured:
Pictures
Videos
Flight trajectory for Google Earth:
halo2-pictures.kmz (with embedded pictures)
halo2-videos.kmz (with embedded videos)
Excel Files:
burst.xls — balloon lift prediction (thanks to Steve Randall)
analysis.xls — flight analysis (data, graphs, etc...)
Programs:
GM862-GPS code with 24km crash prevention (original code by nick84)
FAQ
Q:Why only a 3 megapixel camera?
A:Megapixels are a myth. More than 3 megapixels do not make sense for a camera sensor of that size and would actually be worse because smaller area per pixel results in more noise and fewer color levels. Now with a DSLR, more is better. But for this project a 3 megapixel camera is perfect and much better than a >=5 megapixel one. It would have been nice to do hi-def video and a separate video camera might be an idea for the next launch.
Q:Why not make the parachute system unnecesarily complex?
A:This parachute system has been tested on Flight 1 and worked fine. The problem can be mitigated by a tensioner ring and by a longer distance between balloon and parachute.
Q:Isn't it a danger for manned aircraft?
A:Even though the chance of collision is very small, there was an aluminium foil inside the capsule for radar reflection. Control towers should have been able to track it. As for legality, as far as I can tell, it's permitted for that weight without requirements to notify any authority.
Q:Haven't this been done before?
A:Yes, like I said it's an emerging hobby which is great to see. I am very impressed by other launches some of which are more complex than mine. I have been following other people's progress and have still alot to learn. There are a couple of high altitude clubs and societies that you can join. Initially most launches were done by licensed radio amateurs, but now license-free solutions are readily available (at least in Canada/USA). I tried to do something unique, so a tilted camera taking both videos and pictures was used.
Q:How much did it cost?
A:The system that is presented is a little over-engineered for historical reasons as well as for future expansion and test purposes. It's possible to build a system for $500 with just a cellphone link and a microcontroller, but make sure that coverage is good where you intend to launch and use a good cellphone antenna.
Comments
Showing 344 comments.
sYx66 says:
Beautiful
Arialia says:
Wonderful
omg says:
I put the news on playeradvance.
omg says:
Finally, your camera is dead or all is perfect?
Sto says:
Simply amazing !
3dotter says:
Great! Such nice presentation as well!
Robocop says:
Simply wonderful! How do you find such ideas?
|greatteacher| says:
I'm agree with robocop( ;) ) , simply wonderfull !
Ludo6431 says:
Very good, excellent, you have very good ideas.
Ricky3134 says:
Very good photos of the space ! It's a very good work ! Very beautiful ^^
Turkkish says:
That is very amazing. I really like it. As for your parachute problem, I would look into attaching lightweight propeller blades. As it falls, it will rotate and slow the descent much like a helicopter. That would make a good back-up in case of a failed parachute.
Matt says:
Thanks, great photos and an inspiring experiment. Looking forward to your next launch, please keep me informed.
StephB says:
I think I can imagine how exciting this must have been!
tekilaz says:
Really AMAZING
David Barker says:
Wow!!! That's immense... makes me want to do something like it now heh. Great work guys!
ben says:
i wanted to see the pop of the balloon!
Craig Harris says:
Beautiful work!
Nobody says:
Cool. My Dad used to work on high-altitude balloons for Lawrence Berkeley Lab in the 1960s (HAPPE - the High Altitude Particle Physics Experiment) -- glad to see folks doing this stuff again.
Ryan Lenethen says:
One of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Great description of build, and nice results with pictures. Makes me want to try something like that. Well done! Makes you think of what you could do to go higher! Attach small rockets to fire at 30k or something Woooo!
johan says:
To correct for the descent problem, I would suggest a rotating propeller system, this will stabilize descent and get rid of the horrible parachute.
Kevin says:
Amazing.. You inspire us all.
Greg says:
I think you're my new hero. Amazing.
Timmy242 says:
You have restored my faith in humanity...in Canada. ;) Seriously, that was amazing stuff. Truly inspiring and should be taught as a science experiment in every elementary/high school!
Bob says:
At the risk of being unoriginal : damn, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I've considered model rocketry photography but it seemed too error-prone to be worth it for the 1 decent photo you might eventually get, this makes a lot more sense.
Rick. says:
Science continues to rule. Added to long list of heroes.
Jennifer Rodrigu says:
Wow simply amazing!!!!!!!!!!!
Valery35 says:
Замечательно :)
Kacela says:
Very cool. If you stay with the parachute for controlling the descent in the future, how about actually placing the the parachute within the ballon, prior to filling the balloon - when deployed, all remants of the popped balloon would probably still tangle in the line, but below the fully deployed parachute.
esecallum says:
I live in Alabama and we are fed up of people wasting our money on stupid things like this You should be fighting in irak and stopping terrorists from attacking America instead of sending stupid balloons up.
Jeff says:
Impressive. If that was done by nasa it would cost millions.
dube says:
Esecallum speaks with an intelligence only a mother could love.
josh france says:
Magnifique! Im really amazed, really good job guys, carry on!
Randall says:
Well, I myself just got very dizzy watching each of the videos...how about setting up a LIVE webstream feed so we all can see this in 'real' time?? when you relaunch next summer.
Gary says:
Fantastic project and very successful too! Your accomplishment demonstrates so many of the meteorological concepts I use in my career and would be an excellent instruction for students too!
Admirer says:
Very nice outcome with this project. It was obviously thoroughly and exhaustively planned. I am impressed. As for esecallum's comments: His brilliance is one reason why our soon-to-be-merged nations are so advanced. And by the way, the AIR FORCE of which you speak is a main reason why you are so fired-up about "terrorism" - if they had been allowed to do their job on 9/11, your comment would be moot. Hope you catch up. . . soon.
jon says:
sorry esecallum,
as says:
Awesome
esecallum says:
How will balloons stop terrorists?
Alan says:
That was pretty cool. If you do the experiment at night or sunset though, the pictures of space would be phenomonal
escallum says:
[Comment deleted by the administrator.]
Kurt says:
Very impressive. The only thing that would make it more impressive is if you went up in the balloon yourself.
John says:
How much did all the hardware cost? This is so I can decide whether it's worth doing myself.
esecallum says:
[Comment deleted by the administrator.]
Christopher Kirk says:
Have you considered collaborating with the Society for Amateur Scientists? (See: http://www.sas.org/ .)
Raymond says:
Your work made me think about Steve Fossett and his solo balloon flight around the Earth. We must all hope that evidence of Mr. Fossett is found soon. To see your project unfold, while scrolling down on the computer screen, was a trip-in-itself.
Raddy B says:
While the pictures you got were quite impressive, I'd really like to say thank you for including audio. Obviously I know that it's just going to sound like wind but it's neat to be able to hear it, too.
Bryan Foster says:
I'd just like to comment that not all Alabamians feel the same way as esecallum does.
Someguy says:
For the spinning: you could consider using gyroscopes.
scott says:
Brilliant work. We live in such a great age that people can do very high tech projects like this relatively cheaply.
Sam Jacob says:
Great Work. Hope you will become someone great!!!
Rich in Va says:
Outstanding. We need more private, non-commercial, non-government inventiveness like this. Can't wait for your next flight.....
sabik says:
Jeff: "If that was done by nasa it would cost millions."
The Goreacle says:
The earth is a baby. It has a fever. I'm here to save it.
innocent says:
respect.
Steve says:
More rope between the balloon and 'chute... do you have to pop it, or can you just cut it loose? Anyway, great job.
Jeff says:
Ron says:
Rather than going to the trouble of installing a Yagi antenna why not reposition the existing antenna so that it mounts horizontally rather than the present vertical?
wondering says:
I bet you would need permit to do launches like this. Imagine if a commercial jetliner would crash with your gadgets and drop.
logicalnot says:
Congratulation. Great work. Very inspiring !
ron says:
ps. A yagi will give you more gain but the pattern will be much narrower. Unless the payload is perfectly still the main energy lobe will be bobbing everywhere and will cause dropouts most likely. The fat gain pattern of a horizontally mounted antenna will still cover for the effects of the moving payload.
shaunewe says:
wow that was certainly amazing! i'm sure you enjoyed the whole experience!
Norsedude says:
Our local ham-radio club has been doing such missions too. Interesting to see, how your measurements compare to ours :) However, you had a much better video equipment.
dennis says:
Awesome, just awesome.
esecallum says:
[Comment deleted by the administrator. Reason: Off-topic.]
Kp says:
@esecallum - funny stuff, dude. Why don't you get back to your TV and chips, and let the rest of us alone?
Metagg says:
Metagg is tracking this post...
Find out what Social News Sites are discussing this post over at metagg.com...
hj says:
Just epic..
Fish4 says:
Simply the _best_ thing I have ever seen on the internet.
Darwin says:
Does the existence of an esecallum alone not prove that the American race is far from advanced? Or is esecallum an anti-American Muslim whose mission is to make Americans look like complete idiots? (If so, well done 'forigner'!)
big-x says:
your parachute problem is curable. when the gov did high altitude jump from 100K feet they knew they would encounter the problem you had. what they did is the guy who jumped deployed a small chute to stabalize himself and then when he got dow to a reasonable altitude he deployed a regular chute/ if you do the samy thing you'll solve your problem
Xavier says:
Excellent work. Very well done in every aspects.
James says:
Whoa, I want to do something like this, what an awesome project :)
James says:
Oh and did anyone else think of [i]Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy[/i]? :)
justin says:
i wonder - if you attached a small rocket with a minature satellite on board, could you launch it from the the balloon when it reaches 30km up and would it have enough velocity to go into orbit?
justin says:
"Oh and did anyone else think of [i]Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy[/i]? :)"
justin says:
"What nasa acheved so great in the past 30 years? Pictures of mars? "
Michael says:
Wow... that's so cool!
Tracy says:
Fascinating
Kaffir-Jussi says:
OK :) The next target: Ocean depths! ;)
Mostly Harmless says:
Amateur balloon hits 30km with pics...
Reddit's web site is a pure time waster by design. This morning I saw this link. It leads to a web site that shows how a hobbyist built a kit and put it on a high altitude balloon. According to his sensors he hit about 30km and has pictures to back...
Martin Bahl says:
You guys rock! This is like a dream come true.
Stuart Eugene Th says:
Cool! You're lucky to be living in Canada -- here in the U.S. the Homeland Security gendarmes would have carted you off by now!
Brady says:
Hey, incredible set. I love seeing people doing science like it should be done! You know building a kit and providing it to schools for science experiments would be a cost effective and interesting way to get students interested in high altitude/space research. As far as esecallum, I am in Afghanistan working with "THE MUSLINS" and you know it has been a great experience. It's ignorance we need to fight and what better way than science?
SEO Test says:
This was an amazing journey. Good luck next time!
Bill says:
Hey what about airplanes, do you worry about it getting sucked into a jet intake and bringing down an airliner? Pretty unlikely, but stranger things have happened! I like your project but hafta worry about every little thing. Maybe you could notify air traffic control before you launch and get a window.
ct says:
Very nice project. And you're lucky to be living in Canada -- if you tried this in germany, you will sent to prison immediately..
James says:
Great work! I love it :)
esecallum says:
[Comment deleted by the administrator. Reason: Off-topic.]
esecallum. says:
[Comment deleted by the administrator. Reason: Off-topic.]
malikah says:
Very beautiful - nice and quiet up there. But please check for safety of overpassing airliners - if that thing gets sucked into the turbine, you could be responsible for the deaths of 100's of people.
Jeff says:
Justin, I do not wish to debate on this issue.
Al - CA says:
Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly was the purpose of this effort? Was it to set an altitude record for a balloon? Or, setting up for an attempt to eventually have your balloon achieve an earth orbit? Would that be a "first"? Really would like to know.
Shaddack says:
Great project!
Jawa says:
Congratulations! This is very inspiring; thanks for sharing the info. It makes us all smarter.
KirkH says:
Some long distance, low budget wireless networking advice... Use the Buffalo HP routers, best bang for buck, great amp/radios. Flash with DD-WRT so you can boost the power and setup 2 in bridge mode. Use a great big 24d dbi parabolic/dish antenna ($60) on the ground, I've had amazing results from the top of big buildings with line of sight, you'll need an adapter to connect a big antenna.
Jerry says:
My apologies for Esecallum. I live in Alabama too, and we aren't all like that.
Eric says:
Wow. Well done. I knew I was keeping my old digital camera for a reason. Im not going let living in the flightpath for Heathrow Airport hold me back
MarkG says:
Great work, and thank you very much for sharing! I wonder if a more rounded payload with a single lateral stabilizing fin would keep it from spinning too much? Maybe you don't want to diverge from the Canon A series, which apparently has performed for you so far, but you might consider looking for a wider-angle digicam for next time. Keep it up!
Paulo says:
Amazing! Cool!
Fzzt says:
Congratulations!
ben says:
Hey. Great Project.
mark says:
One question:
Jon Vaughan says:
This is incredible! Really inspiring, good luck with the next attempt.
Random Internet says:
Alexei,
Wrongway says:
I appreciate that you have found out that the Earth is indeed round and that space is indeed black. All government efforts to convince us of that have been futile, as all government agencies are not trustworthy.
Amr Malik says:
Excellent work! Bravo!
Matt in Denver says:
Glad you've recovered from being Boingboing'd earlier. This is excellent, and I sincerely appreciate your sharing this. My kids loved it, too.
Darwin says:
@esecallum:
Antinius Block says:
Hey, Alexei! Wow!
natrium42 says:
I left a few posts of esecallum, because he's somewhat amusing... Had to write a blacklist system just for him... Trolls exist everywhere (and should be ignored). Alabama is a great state, the troll does not represent it.
orangewarp says:
Very beautiful. You know, it is hard to imagine space as so close to us - reachable by a simple balloon but it is. As a matter of fact, we ARE in space right now eh? On the giant blue balloon. Really great work. Thanks!
Jim says:
OMFG!! We live on a massive sphere floating around in outer space!!!!!!!!!!!!
John says:
sabik says:
@justin: "if you attached a small rocket [...] would it have enough velocity to go into orbit? or would the physics just not work out?"
The Admiral says:
Thanks. Keep up the great work no matter what people say.
Dox says:
Thank you , magnific photo...
dancingcaveman says:
Fantastic!!! Simply inspiring!! The video at 30,489M simply took my breath away!
Vince says:
@natrium42
Cristianov says:
WoW super Good job, good photos, good project, Congratulations..... and Beautiful girl ... :D bye and good luck
Reno says:
There is a simple solution for dealing with the spin.. A piazo gyro with a short boom and rotor will completely resolve it. Drop by a hobby shop that sells remote control plans and 'copters, and look into the 'copter stuff. A very small and light battery op motor spinning a 'copter tail rotor with the gyro controlling the blade pitch will make that problem go away. example here: http://www.hobby4less.com/indexa.php?cPath=44&sort=2a&page=2
Andreas says:
Extraordinary.
inbost says:
Awesome !
Frank says:
Congratulations! This is awsome! Thank you for doing this an sharing all the data with us! 30km hight! 3 time the heigh of a jet liner.
natrium42 says:
@Frank:
pad says:
Truly inspiring.
stratanova says:
This is ingenious.
Jorge Alves says:
Well done! :)
Jogibr says:
It's amazing, great work guys!
Eric says:
Any plans for a manned flight?
Geoff Pack says:
Very Cool!
Jasinho says:
Is there any risk involved to planes or people on the ground?
pad says:
Life is risk.
Jeff Fletcher says:
Nice work, really well documented. I love stuff like this.
Claude's Blog says:
Projet: HALO2...
Waat maachen jonk Leit aus Kanada, wann hinnen langweileg ass? Richteg, sie bastelen en riesegen Helium-Balon, klaacken eng Digitalkamera, en GPS-Sender drenner, an loosen daat ganzt op 30km Heischt fleien. D’Fotoen dono gesinn einfach mega aus....
Thermik says:
Great idea and very good pictures/videos.
mauricio says:
cara eu estou abismado com isso,parabens de cprao..
dave says:
For extra payload protection, you may wish to switch from (expanded)Polystyrene to expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam as it is much more impact resistant, less brittle and springier. you can buy it in blocks or salvage it from computer shipping boxes, though monitors still seem to use EPS...
Gilvan Cruz says:
Muito bom, Parabns!!!
Matheus Alves says:
Congratulations for guy. I´m from Bebedouro - Sp -Brazil and this is the amazing fact what I´ve seem
Holger Schmitz says:
Marvellous. Im very impressed of Your achievement! Thumbs up !
Silvio says:
Incredible!!!
Fernando says:
I Am Braziliam!!! Very Good Work, Extraordinary !!!
Michael (Switzer says:
Hi there!
mtu_aerospace says:
Hi! Congrats of the successful flight!
AnKh says:
Excellent !!
Cods says:
Very impressive and amazing.
eligarf says:
alti-dude!!
asa says:
[Comment deleted by the administrator. Reason: Troll.]
AL1 says:
about esecallum : come on guys, what are the odds that such a moron would find a website like this one only 4 days after it's initial release ? he's a troll, a good one though ;)
Konix says:
vraiment magnifique ! Felicitation, trs belles images !
NoiseBoy says:
Wow, I love this!
George from Germ says:
Marvelous! Im very happy to hear and see about your wonderful experimental ideas and wish you all the very best luck for the next action! god bless you - make another lots of beautiful pictures of our blue planet and take care of the international space police!
natirum42 says:
@NoiseBoy:
gustavo says:
Exelente, gracias por compartir, saludos desde Uruguay.
yves says:
dommage pour votre parachute trop petit je pense, il aurai tait mieux d'utilis un dclenchement d'ouverture du parachute par mini explosion radio.....BRAVO A TOUS
lanjoe9 says:
Your pictures (and the whole project as well) are awe inspiring!
n!MA says:
WOW
Dante Binda says:
Hello,
yatie says:
Hello,
Romme Sanchez says:
Ricardo says:
Hi,
Dieter Klemke says:
Wunderbar!
Dieter Klemke says:
It's me again.
Christoph says:
I read about your project in a german newspaper. Amazing ! Im looking forward for your next flight and wish you all the best !
Adriano Rocha says:
Hi, i'm from Brazil
Al3x (France) says:
Hello, your project is great! Pictures and videos are beautiful, that's nice!
VE6SRV says:
Nice project... you should look at using a more reliable communications mode than cellular. Amateur radio is easy to get into, and we have lots of great toys to use for these projects. There are some amateurs near Perth that are looking to get into high altitude ballooning. Maybe a combined project would give you more options, and capabilties.
Steve says:
COOL! good job guys!
jonas says:
muito maneiro queria fazer isso tambem .as fotos tao muito boa so faltou estabilizar um pouco o balao!
Mac says:
There is a simple explanation of why the GPS failed.
Katusha says:
WOOOOOOW!!! Incredible and astounding.
Joe says:
I am on a team at the University of South Florida. We are building a payload much like yours, and we really want to use the Xtend Data modem (directional antenna on the ground), but are concerned with its failure on your mission. Any thoughts?
hgad says:
Really Exciting!
H. Banken says:
Tolles Projekt super ausgefhrt.
sobchak71 says:
Wow, great idea, really amazing.
C. Schrer says:
Terrific project, wonderful pictures,
Lucas says:
AMAZING PROJECT!
Anoop says:
Hi Alexei,
Hanna says:
Hey, thanks for your great idea and sharing the wonderfull results with us! Es ist wunderbar, dankeschn ! I got it from a german newspaper, and now I wonder : how would look the "Oktoberfest" from above ?!
Henke says:
Hello
Constantine says:
Hey Alexei,
Dante Binda says:
Hello,
Muffin says:
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing!
Axel says:
I can't imagine the feeling of coming home and opening the SD card for the first time... The images are stunning. And I keep thinking this: It feels so alone up there.
Niels T. says:
Hello!
TomCallhagan says:
DUDE ! AMAZING !!!!
Nic M says:
Doesn't HALO traditionally stand for High Altitude, Low Open?
Jonas says:
Wonderful work, awesome pictures!
Natalja says:
I do not understand much in ballooning, but it looks interesting. I also share the surname with you.
james says:
Dont pay attention Esecallum, he didnt understand "photographers"He is another stupid like all "no photographers"
Ricardo says:
Hello!
Peter says:
geile Sache
Jan Wedekind says:
Cool project and stunning pictures. You may want to have a look for digital cameras which can be controlled externally. As far as I know there are digital cameras which can be controlled by USB or some other interface. Of course they may be expensive :(
natrium42 says:
I did have remote capture via USB on Flight 1 (hence the Verdex instead of a simple microcontroller). Unfortunately it broke at an altitude of 8km -- probably because of poor USB connection (should have soldered it). In any case, USB remote capture did not permit to take videos and taking pictures was very slow at USB 1.1 speeds. Also, Canon cameras keep crashing after you take a couple hundred pictures via USB, so I had to add in a relay to cycle power to the camera... The advantage of USB capture was that I had access to the pictures with the Verdex and could scale them down and downlink the thumbs in-flight. Here are the thumbs downlinked in-flight at Flight 1: http://natrium42.com/balloon/downlinked%20thumbs/
Philippe Annet says:
Mohamad says:
that is awesome , this is very nice project indead i wonder if we able to invite you her in kuwait to demonistrate the project in our club,
Mohamad says:
that is awesome , this is very nice project indead i wonder if we able to invite you her in kuwait to demonistrate the project in our club,
u1tra says:
this is the cheapest of the amazing things i've ever seen.
Carl Covey says:
Dear guys & gals! That was spectacular! Congratulations! We are watching from the USA and are very proud of you! You did a great job! RC Group is watching! Thanks for sharing!
dayhead says:
I wonder how much more complex/expensive it would be to use a glider instead of a parachute? Could the GPS be used to guide the glider back to the launch site? Seems like a simple foam delta wing glider, like the Space Shuttle, would work.
blaze and friend says:
Good Work.
Eugene says:
Hi, i was wondering how do u modify the code to include bearing as well?
pingping says:
"everything of genius is simple"
Alan Craig says:
Fantastic amateur science Alexei, pictures/site/ project all superb. If you don't mind me offering a suggestion, solid state gyros are cheaply available from the model helicopter hobby. These along with small electric motors and props on a torque arm may be able to control some of the rotation at a penalty of about 100g. Good luck next year,
Max says:
Molodci rebjata ! ka4estvo izumitel'noe
yam says:
hello did you took wind speed measurements at different altitude?
ricardo says:
ola sou do brasil e vc esta de parabens pelo experimento vc no tem propostas de trabalhar na nasa e ensinar os caras por la como se faz isto bem baratinho hhe
Jess says:
Hey -
Igor Carron says:
Alexei,
Hot Air Balloon says:
Hot Air Balloon Flights UK[...]
It can occasionally get formidable to extract the valuable hot air ballooning albuquerque work from the dreadful.[...]
Kashan Ahmad says:
Hi
Bill.jr says:
Hi,
Alessandro says:
wawawiwowa
Alain says:
Great project. Greetings from Luxemburg
Benjamin Franzma says:
Hi.
J says:
Very nice project. Sounds like a lot of fun. So , you said that you basically power cycled the camera occasionally? I think you could make another way to safeguard the photos. I would suggest making a blank sd card to bring the connections out to wires and then to a pcb with an sd slot, you could put on that card (it might be kind of bulky)a memory ic and a pic chip additional to the sd slot. With that you could program the pic to buffer the photos to the memory ic and create a protection to isolate voltage/current spikes from the camera. Every so often the pic would write the buffer to the sd card and electrically isolate the card some how when it wasn't being written to. It might also be possible to hook that circuit up to the radio modem (might increase risk of loss of pictures?) and have the radio modem relay pictures to your computer when it wasn't performing normal communication.
Eric says:
Ignore esecallum. He doesn't represent Alabama, he represents the stereotypes that people apply to Alabama.
Stephen says:
From: http://www.eoss.org/faq/faa_liaison.htm
Jack says:
Needs a HERO tag. The pictures are fantastic, and it's good to see people explore the edge of space.
Dan says:
Hello!
Greg, K4HSM says:
Very nice. I'm involved with a group here in Knoxville, TN who's done several similar to yours and was even featured in Make Magazine. I would recommend visiting this site for ARHAB (Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning) ballooning records (altitude, ascent, etc.) at http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/ARHABrecords.htm.
Greg, K4HSM says:
Another recommendation would be to point your cellular antenna earthward, rather than above the box. The payload will shield the signal from the ground as it goes up. You might be able to put it on the side, but it may not be as effective cross-polarized. A bit of aluminum foil and a paper plate to make a horn, or "dish" might also help to boost more signal back to the ground.
domelhor.net says:
Voo de Alta Altitude[...]
Os voos em balo de hlio parece estarem a entrar na moda, neste foram tiradas algumas imagens quer fotografias quer vdeos. A altitude alcanada foi de 30 km.[...]
kevin mcguigan says:
i would like to be part of your team. i dont have much knowledge of software, but i have
2007-10-23 06:06:19
2007-10-23 07:29:40
I like very much what you make ( Dserial, Robotds and this :) )
2007-10-23 07:41:45
Your work is unbelieveble!
I'm waiting for Summer 2008 to see your next flight!
For the next level you will send your RobotDS on the Moon? :)
2007-10-23 07:51:13
2007-10-23 08:44:16
Thanks for sharing. :)
2007-10-23 10:25:55
2007-10-23 11:55:28
JEAN
2007-10-23 13:31:22
It's amazing guy !
Thanks for sharing this ;)
2007-10-24 07:06:43
Good work, and thanks to share your knowledge, and feelings.
2007-10-25 13:22:54
2007-10-26 01:54:13
2007-10-26 02:43:06
2007-10-26 05:57:36
Also lookink forward to your next space mission.
2007-10-26 06:00:07
Really good stuff, And I'm waiting the nextime!!
Great Job guy!
2007-10-26 07:30:33
2007-10-26 08:02:24
2007-10-26 08:26:56
In the unlikely event that you haven't heard of Joseph Kittinger, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger
2007-10-26 13:06:54
2007-10-26 13:49:20
2007-10-26 14:05:02
2007-10-26 14:42:54
2007-10-26 15:06:00
2007-10-26 15:15:02
2007-10-26 15:15:51
2007-10-26 15:26:04
2007-10-26 15:26:05
2007-10-26 15:28:49
Я надеюсь вам будет интересно в http://pictearth.ning.com/
Модуль для работы с Canon один из ближайших к разработке.
I hope you can read this text :)
2007-10-26 15:32:51
2007-10-26 15:41:42
We have AIR FORCE to take pictures.
We Americans must stop muslin terrorists..We must fght for justice,democracy and civisation and stop forigners despoiling this great country.
GOD BLESS AMERICA.
2007-10-26 15:46:38
2007-10-26 16:02:19
This is brilliant, and it's because of innovation like this that we have the capability to defend our country.
Keep up the good work Alexei. Way to contribute to our "civisation".
2007-10-26 16:03:14
2007-10-26 16:12:23
2007-10-26 16:21:35
It would be most beneficial in your next launch to either review/post the upper-air charts and RAOB sounding for the day or have someone advise of the weather conditions. By comparing your data to the analyzed conditions, you can compare the performance and accuracy of both your instruments and the readings of the day.
Awesome job!
2007-10-26 16:45:20
Great job Alexei!
2007-10-26 16:46:03
Dont think you are fooling anyone...alabama rednecks dont sound anything like that.
anyway.....
So it looks like it travelled about 74.8 km? Great Job.
2007-10-26 16:52:14
2007-10-26 16:58:14
tell me.
they are slow and easily puntured and EASILY SHOT DOWN..
YOU CANNOT CONTROL A BALLOON...IT IS HELPLESS AGAINST WIND.
it can fall to the earth killing people.
last year in the woods a balloon came down and metal frame nearly killed someone.
our air force is the best.we are the top nation...we dont want photos of empty air...
we need to stop muslins from crossing the borders.we need men on the ground..
we need to be united against terrorism and muslin threats.
WE MUST INCREASE MILITARY DEFENSE AND SUPPORT PRESIDENT BUSH AGAINST FORIGNERS.
2007-10-26 17:00:21
2007-10-26 17:42:32
2007-10-26 17:45:31
2007-10-26 17:57:55
2007-10-26 18:22:13
2007-10-26 18:32:15
2007-10-26 18:46:21
2007-10-26 19:27:57
Thank you! :c >
2007-10-26 19:58:32
Btw Ese, muslin is something photographers use as a backdrop, MORON.
2007-10-26 20:12:47
There's a passive gyroscope that I believe is called a "wingeron". It's outfitted on the little winglets of Air to Air missiles. It's basically a short and wide cylindrical object that rotates passively with the passing wind and stabilizes the rocket.
You'll obviously need to do some testing of the idea.
Also, kite tails (the long frilly kind) are impressively good at stabilizing. But again, you need wind.
And finally, and I think most realistically, a micro-torque swivel. That and also non twisting rope (meaning that it has to be braided rope), will probably keep it simple stupid enough that it might actually work.
Great stuff, btw!
2007-10-26 20:39:28
I was wondering if an internal gyroscope might help prevent the camera from spinning so much? Probably not I guess. Anyway congratulations on the launch.
Cheers,
Scott in Tokyo
2007-10-26 20:43:47
2007-10-26 22:52:04
2007-10-26 23:39:46
There's a big difference between just going up and down 30km (or even 100km) and actually achieving orbit. Once you get out of the atmosphere, one of the key formulas is exponential.
There probably is some inefficiency at NASA, it's a large, government organisation. However, it makes no sense to compare orbital and lunar flights to this; it's a different league altogether.
That said, this flight is pretty impressive. The technology to achieve this is now within the reach of a hobbyist... very cool!
2007-10-26 23:45:27
You took a picture of my baby without my permission.
Unless you immediately hand over the sum of one million carbon credits to my, er, George Soros, er, the UN's department of ecological justice, the full weight of my global geo-political inlfuence will come down upon you, hard.
Are you aware that I am adored and worshipped by millions? This was proven by my recent award of the Nobel.
The entire population of the earth will thank me someday.
Excelsior!
2007-10-27 00:05:07
one of my future pet projects was to send a self-made balloon in to space, but seeing you do it gives me confidence.
2007-10-27 00:19:49
2007-10-27 00:56:06
Hi Sabik,
I am not depreciating any great jobs done by nasa.
Everyone knows the exagerated progect costs from small to large.
What nasa acheved so great in the past 30 years? Pictures of mars? Many theories but non conclusive.
Space shuttle is still the same what I used to see in the 1980s.By now they should land on the moon as if they are landing in JFK with all those billions since the moon landing.Goverment should fund more private sectors.
Yes I must admit that the fist thing it came to my mind was
"If THIS experiment (not more not less) was done by nasa it would cost millions."
2007-10-27 01:00:38
That way the main lobe of the antenna is pointing down at the ground rather than the horizon. When it is vertical, very little energy will radiate underneath it.
2007-10-27 01:12:19
2007-10-27 01:15:57
2007-10-27 01:23:40
2007-10-27 01:27:57
2007-10-27 01:38:31
http://tinyurl.com/22s4cp
2007-10-27 03:02:21
Congratulations on your succesful project!
2007-10-27 03:07:00
2007-10-27 03:23:02
2007-10-27 04:03:59
2007-10-27 04:27:33
2007-10-27 04:41:50
2007-10-27 05:13:34
2007-10-27 05:17:27
2007-10-27 05:31:14
Good luck for your next launch.
2007-10-27 05:42:21
2007-10-27 05:44:15
2007-10-27 05:58:34
or would the physics just not work out?
very cool project Alexei! totally awesome. the sense of satisfication that YOU have taken pictures of space yourself from a device you built yourself must be immense.well done. look forward to your next launch.
2007-10-27 05:59:45
yeah. thats exactly what came to my mind as well. should be the theme music for Alexei's next launch!
2007-10-27 06:12:22
off the top of my head:
the two Mars Rovers (which are still operating)
Cassini (orbiting Saturn)
Huygens probe (landed on Titan)
Galileo (orbited Jupiter)
New Horizons (en route to Pluto)
Hubble space telescope
Magellan (Venus)
Messenger (en route to Mercury)
Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Pathfinder
Viking 1 and 2 (Mars)
Mars Odyssey (currently operational)
Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (currently operational)
Dawn (en route to Vesta asteroid)
Phoenix (en route to Mars)
2007-10-27 06:15:56
2007-10-27 06:29:39
2007-10-27 06:31:24
2007-10-27 06:53:10
2007-10-27 07:05:52
2007-10-27 07:22:31
2007-10-27 07:25:50
2007-10-27 07:34:09
2007-10-27 07:46:32
2007-10-27 07:56:18
2007-10-27 07:56:58
2007-10-27 08:04:33
2007-10-27 08:04:57
2007-10-27 08:13:20
2007-10-27 09:18:44
I just wnat to say to these guys WELL DONE and hope we see more.
2007-10-27 09:41:14
The balloon burst above 30km, Perhaps a sturdier envelope? How about a "side saddle" af two smaller balloons attached and nested folded against the sides of the main balloon and vented internally into the main balloon through a pressure switch which would open when internal pressure within the main balloon approaches blowout thereby bleeding off into the attached twins and so reducing that internal balloon pressure to allow for additional altitude gain? Would that work?
2007-10-27 10:08:19
Idea for further launches: put a Geiger counter on-board, measure the rise of ionizing radiation with altitude. Same with an ultraviolet radiation sensor, if possible in all three UVA/UVB/UVC bands. Also you may try what a humidity sensor will do, though at the higher altitudes it may not show much.
A very interesting measurement would be the concentration of ozone and atomic oxygen. For ozone, the sensors can be acquired from e.g. www.microchemical.com - not sure what with atomic O.
Esecallum the Bellicose, why aren't *you* in Iraq? Or at least learning and/or practicing some technology (and spelling) to make your homeland greater so your R&D wouldn't have to be done by immigrants? The course you're on now leads in long run to handing the global dominance over to China.
2007-10-27 11:58:58
2007-10-27 12:24:54
I imagine you could dangle a lower dbi parabolic (i'll be moving around up there) from the bottom and keep a pretty decent link established. Using the above stuff I managed a solid 20Mbit (good enough for Hi-Def!) link over a couple of miles.
2007-10-27 12:32:37
This is a fantastic project... thanks for sharing it with us!
2007-10-27 12:49:06
2007-10-27 13:15:43
2007-10-27 13:35:18
2007-10-27 13:35:34
Thanks for taking the time to share the adventure.
2007-10-27 13:37:17
I suggest using Hydrogen gas next time - it will go up faster and will be able to carry more weight.
Also use a fish eye lens so you can see more. You could maybe have separate dedicated video and still frame cameras, though this might weigh too much.
As for worrying about jet airliners or people wanting you to not do this because it breaks "codes", forget it. You aren't doing anything wrong and you are improving the knowledge of humans.
Also, how much did this rig cost? I would like to know because I might try this myself. I live in Michigan close to you, so I have ideas of a trans-Huron lake mission. Hopefully there will be enough wind.
2007-10-27 13:42:16
What caused the balloon to break? Expansion due to altitude? The "Cutdown" relay?
2007-10-27 13:58:31
2007-10-27 14:12:10
Congratulations on a fine piece of amateur science! Truly admirable and inspiring.
I do wonder though, about the possibility of a collision with plane (small or large) during flight. Are there any ways to mitigate or reduce such a possibility? What about some kind of flight transponder or electronic beacon? Is there such a device? Or is it actually necessary at all? I wonder what Weather Balloons use?
Keep up the good work.
2007-10-27 14:17:41
Amazing project. No need to prove anything. The idea of the parachute inside the balloon looks good. When researching, there is plenty of history and science behind telemetry. Have fun with stage three. I'll be looking out for it!
As for collateral damage by bringing down an airliner...screw 'em. They paid their money, they take their chances.
2007-10-27 14:32:51
2007-10-27 14:49:44
2007-10-27 15:23:52
By the way, are you still selling that land in Pakistan?
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showthread.php?t=206492
I could sure use it for some balloon testing.
2007-10-27 17:13:33
Esecallum--if this person actually exists and has such "thoughts" is a dunce and is of no consequence.
You, however, have added beauty and wonder to the world.
A handshake in thought to you.
2007-10-27 17:29:32
@Someguy:
Thanks for the suggestions. It should be possible to test an anti-torque system on the ground when there's wind. I did expect to see spin before the launch, but it wasn't entirely clear how pronounced it would be.
@Raddy B:
Audio makes it more dramatic, doesn't it? :)
BTW, the clicking noise is the servo. I should have calibrated it better before launch.
@Norsedude:
I have visited your site before, it's very cool! I like the number of sensors that you used. Reading in German is easier, though, without the poor automatic translation :)
@KirkH:
It needs to be more than a few miles, since the balloon not only 18 miles up but there's also horizontal distance. Do you think about 30 miles LOS is possible?
@ben:
A separate video camera would be a good idea. It could also be used to take thumbnails for downlinking to the ground while in-flight. The total cost of parts in the picture is a bit over $1k. A big chunk is for the XTend radio modem which did not work well for Flight 2 (with that antenna setup). Also the Verdex computer is not really necessary unless you want to scale images down and control a camera via USB. So a system can be built for $500.
@mark:
The balloon expands as pressure drops, and when it expands past the limit, it bursts. The manufacturer provided the diameter at burst and there's a XLS provided with the calculations of the altitude when that occurs. Please look under Data for the Excel sheet.
2007-10-27 19:29:06
2007-10-27 21:43:59
2007-10-27 22:34:08
QUOTE: esecallum
"I live in Alabama and we are fed up of people wasting our money on stupid things like this You should be fighting in irak and stopping terrorists from attacking America instead of sending stupid balloons up.
We have AIR FORCE to take pictures.
We Americans must stop muslin terrorists..We must fght for justice,democracy and civisation and stop forigners despoiling this great country.
GOD BLESS AMERICA."
Umm for one, Canadian citizens arent wasting the United States money on sending a helium baloon into the upper atmosphere. Number two, Canada also has an air force. Planes cant reach 30,000 meters in the air. Only a rocket or a shuttle can.
Lastly, all terrorists arent Islamic (Muslim). By the way what is up with your grammar? Anyways, Great job. Cant wait for the next project!
2007-10-27 23:21:40
AFAICT, the physics wouldn't work out very well.
Even if the balloon got you all the way up to LEO altitude (100km rather than 30km), the horizontal velocity of LEO is some 7.6-7.8km/s. Realistic exhaust velocities are 2.5km/s for solid fuel rocket, 3.5km/s for liquid. Rocket equation: 1-exp(-7.7/2.5) is 95%, 1-exp(-7.7/3.5) is 89%. So, to a first approximation, your rocket would have to be 95% or 89% fuel; 5% or 11% casing, engines, fuel-tank and payload. Making a fuel-tank that masses 8x or 19x less than its contents is a challenge, never mind allowing for payload on top of that...
Essentially, what you're suggesting is a two-stage system: first stage balloon, second stage rocket. Naturally, the complexity of the system rises - there are now twice as many things to go wrong, plus extra ones in the interaction. Igniting a rocket by remote or automatic control in near-vacuum is not something a hobbyist can test, for instance.
You could make it a three-stage system (1st balloon, rocket for 2nd and 3rd), which would improve the figures but increase the complexity even more. Or you could skip the balloon and just go rockets for all stages, the conventional way. Cargo launch to orbit is competitive enough that if balloons were advantageous, they'd be used.
We need better rocket engines.
2007-10-28 01:56:06
2007-10-28 03:21:35
2007-10-28 03:38:32
2007-10-28 10:01:45
How dare you conduct freakin awesome experiments in Canada while America is at war!
For every balloon you send up, God creates 1,000 more terrorists we have to fight.
Joking aside, this stuff is cool as hell. Looking forward to anything else you guys do in the future!
2007-10-28 10:29:55
2007-10-28 10:53:55
A really cheap (and effective) way to get what you need for this is to just grab a 'copter from ebay. Should be able to get everything you need for under 50 bucks.
Cool project, keep up the good work!
2007-10-28 11:59:31
Amazing.
I got vertigo just looking at some of the photos and videos.
Great project!!
2007-10-28 12:13:20
2007-10-28 13:27:50
I wonder how the batteries can still work at -45C.
Also the parachute seem small. Is it necssary to have a small parachute for preventing the thing to drift for possibly thousand of kilometers during descent?
Once again congratulation and thanks you!
2007-10-28 14:48:11
Lithium Sulfur Dioxode batteries are often used in extreme conditions and are specifically suited for extreme cold. They are used in the military, emergency beacons, etc... Operating temperatures are -60 C to +70 C. I put all electronics into styrofoam for protection against cold. The electronics also heat up, so everything should have been within operating ranges. Should have used an internal temperature sensor...
You don't want the parachute to be too big because descent would take longer and it would travel farther. Time of descent with Flight 2 was about 30 minutes. Here is a descent rate calculator:
http://www.onlinetesting.net/cgi-bin/descent3.3.cgi
Plug in 1.5 kg for mass and 48" for diameter. You should get about 20 km/h which is a pretty good value.
Thanks!
2007-10-28 16:51:12
Might I make two suggestions, mostly aesthetically insired?
Consider using a UV filter on the camera - will cut down on "haze" greatly, and make for much clearer high altitude pictures.
How about a launch timed to coincide with dusk or dawn? The images you get would be greatly enhanced - side light across the land would reveal relief, and the lighting effects you see on cloud formations could be extraordinary. Try timing things so that you hit your highest altitude at dawn (for that altitude). See the sun comes over the limb of the earth at 30,000m!
2007-10-28 20:51:16
It should not be forgotten that people who start doing small projects like this are the people who do great things later in life. There is absolutely no point of comparing this with NASA or the Air Force any other entity. Take it for what it is... an ingenious project.
You are right up there with people like Edison and Graham Bell mate!
Congratulations from Sri Lanka!
2007-10-29 03:11:21
2007-10-29 03:50:50
2007-10-29 06:38:22
How much does Esecallum weigh?
2007-10-29 07:12:46
(and the photos are beautiful)
I was interested to see how full you inflated the balloon on launch - all photos I've seen of weather balloon launches have the ballon barely inflated at all on launch, presumably so it can expand much more and fly higher. Still, the world record for an unmanned balloon is 51.8 km, so you did incredibly well for such a small budget. I wonder how much higher you can go?
Cheers,
2007-10-29 07:53:40
2007-10-29 10:23:21
I'm pretty sure the risk to others created here is less than the risk to others created by any one of us climbing into a car and driving a few miles.
2007-10-29 11:55:07
Jeff
2007-10-29 14:29:54
2007-10-29 15:59:19
We can see, the earth is not SO big...
2007-10-29 16:39:31
2007-10-29 16:41:08
great project!
2007-10-29 19:19:34
2007-10-30 04:36:15
2007-10-30 06:27:17
2007-10-30 06:29:52
Amazing!!!
Keep the good work!!!
Some people can't see all possibilities from your project.
2007-10-30 07:35:14
2007-10-30 13:39:21
Really nice work! I love puctures where you can see the black space! If i was crazy enough i would take 20 baloons like this, a parachute and go up myself :) (a a lil gun to shoot the baloons when im too high :)
Love it. Thank you!
Greetz from Switzerland
PS:
Ah i dont talk nederland or what "Claude" is from..but i get it...
Translation of "Claudes Blog"
What are the people from Canada doin' when they're bored?
Right, they build a huge helium-baloon, put a digital-camera, and a GPS-sender on it and let this whole thing fly to an altidute of 30km. The Pictures just look amazing.
2007-10-30 14:50:25
I am curious- why did you choose to bring the payload back blind? Have you or are you looking into guided recovery systems such as a parafoil or bladed system?
-Robert
2007-10-30 16:11:28
good job
2007-10-31 03:07:27
2007-11-01 04:52:31
deeply impressed!
its amazing that all the instrumentation worked so well just styropored... conventional batteries at low temperature, camera at no pressure (there seem to be no tight "chambers" e.g. at the housing for the ccd, optics and such) also, there should be huge temperatur differences at the load (sun/shadow side)... the constant movement seems to be quite advantageous... even if the movies became a bit gyratory...
what would be the maximum altitude theoretical reachable with he-ballons anyways?
looking forward to the next steps...
2007-11-01 14:18:03
2007-11-02 04:00:27
anyway, great project, great web site too ! thanks for sharing
2007-11-02 06:39:26
2007-11-02 10:25:13
Any idea when you next launch will be?
Would love to hear the sound with a small external microphone and a good windscreen.... would shield from the noise of the electronics. Also, do you have video at the moment the balloon burst? That would be cool.
~NB
PS - Who is that freak making all the lame god/terrorist posts? Who are the real Terrorists? What a fool!
2007-11-02 11:57:08
2007-11-02 13:08:04
I thought that I already included sound... :)
Balloon burst wasn't captured because I only had one camera which wasn't always pointed up taking a video.
2007-11-02 21:00:35
2007-11-02 21:12:10
2007-11-02 21:20:58
I've made a link to your page from mine so others may see it :)
Looking forward to see what you'll get on summer 2008!
Keep up the excellent work!!
2007-11-03 03:58:26
2007-11-03 12:08:13
My name is Dante Bindaand i live in Peru, My hobbie is the air, Im pilot of paragider, hang gliders, trikes, air hot ballons... etc, and I like assembly the rockets. Your fligth is very intersting and I will Like fly a hellium ballon here in Peru. Please you can hep me for that? What I will need?
You have a e_mail? for talk...
Thanks
Dante Binda
2007-11-03 18:00:15
Very excellent project here.. you must be SMART!!!
Btw, I hv a few questions
Could you explain about how you use microcontroller to read pressure sensor, and how you convert it into altitude?
Do you constantly get the real-time reading from the payload?( temp and pressure ).. if so, could you explain further.. u just said that u use 900MHz modem
2007-11-03 18:07:40
Neat!
Nice Project!
Thx for Sharing!
2007-11-03 21:26:18
Im brazilian.
congratulations
is a excelent project!
2007-11-04 02:06:22
Eine so groartige Mischung von Idee, Trumerei und Umsetzung.
Einfach grroartig.
Wir werden einen Link auf unserer Seite setzen.
Beste Gre
Dieter Klemke
2007-11-04 02:16:30
As most of the visitors are english speaking, I want to give my compliments again in english.
A wonderful project showing that it is possible to let dreams come true. Impressively and fascinating.
I wish you all the best and hope for other wonderful projects coming out of your "kitchen of ideas"
Best regards
Dieter Klemke
2007-11-05 08:23:55
Cheers
Christoph
2007-11-05 09:31:35
great initiative.
all pictures are amazing and the videos was in a very nice resolution, congratulations!
how do you know all this things? =]
best regards
2007-11-05 11:01:39
Congratulations! 8)
2007-11-05 21:02:59
You need to read up on the unmanned free balloon regulations... You stated you used 143 cu ft of helium, which is over the maximum of 115 cu ft for exempted flight. If you go over 115 cu ft of lift gas, you need to get Ministerial permission for launch.
"602.42 No person shall release an unoccupied free balloon having a
gas-carrying capacity of more than 115 cubic feet (3.256 m3) except
in accordance with an authorization issued by the Minister pursuant
to section 602.44."
http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/Regserv/Affairs/cars/Part6/602.htm
Reflashing the Sirf chipset won't help... they shut down at 60,000 ft. There are many GPS units that we have tested and proven to be reliable over 60,000 ft.
Launching a small rocket from 100,000 ft won't get you to space. We are working on a project to launch a 100 lb two stage N-N rocket from 100,000 ft. We are projecting a max altitude of 85 km, still shy of the Krmn line by 15 km, and further still from orbital insertion.
Experimentation like this is lots of fun, but there are many groups out there that have lots of experience, and can help get you past some of the hurdles that have been faced numerous times. It's cheaper to learn by some one else's error!
Drop us a note if you want to chat.
James Ewen
VE6SRV
BEAR and SABLE Near Space Projects.
2007-11-06 20:28:55
2007-11-08 20:08:41
mas este fato perfeito parabens .
jonas rio de janeiro ,gosto muito te fotos espacial e areas ..sou fan da nasa tambem.agora so teu fan hahah f/w
2007-11-11 06:00:21
To quote Wikipedia:
To help prevent civilian GPS guidance from being used in an enemy's military or improvised weaponry, the US Government controls the export of civilian receivers. A US-based manufacturer cannot generally export a GPS receiver unless the receiver contains limits restricting it from functioning when it is simultaneously:
(1) at an altitude above 18 kilometers (60,000 ft) and
(2) traveling at over 515 m/s (1,000 knots).
To meet that specification, it is easy for them simply to stop giving output at 60,000 feet and not have to worry about the speed.
Using a GPS *NOT* manufactured in the USA may help.
Mac
2007-11-11 16:39:34
2007-11-11 16:55:19
Joe R.
www.xlabs-usf.com
--science to the people
2007-11-12 12:17:56
2007-11-12 12:29:32
Glckwunsch aus Deutschland.
2007-11-12 12:50:16
I`ve seen your flight on german tv.
What about a next trip to the moon ?
Some of the comments show that there`re idiots worldwide...
2007-11-12 13:24:30
I am impressed by your work, wait for summer 2008.
btw: Your project web page was introduced on German television.
Greetings from germany
2007-11-13 08:21:57
I hope mine is a success like yours, way to get it done right!
How accurate was the Balloon Trajectory Forcast, I am running a bunch of them to see the different ranges of places that it could land, do you know what descent rate the program uses? How close was it to your landing spot? Thanks!
2007-11-13 10:58:58
I am software engineer from India,just had a question for you,is it possible to make controllable filghts using ballons?I mean filling gas in an areodynamically shaped ballon ,fix propellers and fly them.
These machines if built can become excellent monitoring devices from top.
Thank you
Anoop
2007-11-13 12:01:25
2007-11-13 17:03:29
Very impressive!
Good luck with the next flight.
p.s.
As a photographer, may I suggest that you use a polaroid filter for the camera. it will really bring out the clouds and the sky.
2007-11-13 21:02:07
Very impressive indeed!! I played tennis w/ Kate today... your mom, dad, and sister started telling me about this...and I was like ya...I gotta check this out. And now that I have...I am simply amazed!! The fact you go to my school and work w/ Arabi is also amazing...when I get back to school...I'll have to come and find you and you can tell me more about this stuff. And if possible, I'll try to get involved on Flight #3 if you need extra hands for some of the work.
2007-11-13 23:19:10
you have a e-mail?
thanks
dante
2007-11-14 01:14:00
2007-11-14 06:26:36
2007-11-14 09:29:55
Really fantastic. A great projekt and flight!
I know your site, because there're was a report on German TV.
Good luck from Germany :)
2007-11-14 09:51:52
GENIAL !!!
GOOD LUCK FROM FRANCE FOR ALL YOUR UPCOMING PROJECTS :)
NOW THE NASA OWE YOU A GUIDED TOUR OF THEIR HQ :)
TOM
2007-11-14 18:02:28
2007-11-15 00:52:52
Best regards from Sweden!!!
2007-11-15 01:36:49
Natalja Karpenko
2007-11-15 16:36:58
Great job Alexei!
2007-11-16 15:40:03
Congrats Alexei and team, it was a great work.
thanks for sharing your experience.
I live in Brazil and found infs about Halo at a news site.
good luck with the next round :-)
2007-11-17 07:27:12
2007-11-18 16:41:58
The other possibility would be to use a firewire camera and a fanless Mini-ITX board. But most high-resolution IIDC/DCAM firewire cameras are costly in comparison.
2007-11-18 23:43:45
2007-11-23 14:39:01
Fantastic work !!! Thanks for sharing all that material.
How the hell did you get the software to patch the SIRF III ??
Personnally, I'm an amateur rocketeer, I'm currently working on a liquid-fueled engine (LOX-kerosene), but things are really, really slow (and extremely complicated, at my level...). I'm currently also working on an IMU (although I think I'll throw it away, and get an ADIS16350 from Analog...), it'd be interesting to test it in such a balloon.
I'll follow your story, for sure !
2007-11-24 11:18:49
what if you used a valve to de inflate the ballon at higher altitute to avoid burst and see how hi it goes ?
thanks for sharing your ideas and look forward
Mohamad
2007-11-24 11:18:49
what if you used a valve to de inflate the ballon at higher altitute to avoid burst and see how hi it goes ?
thanks for sharing your ideas and look forward
Mohamad
2007-11-27 08:01:34
"everything of genius is simple"
good luck to you.
i'm just interested, what are the gabarites of this creation.
2007-11-30 14:39:13
2007-12-01 15:05:55
Congratulations and Keep Up The Good Work!
2007-12-03 12:17:45
great Idea!!!!!!!!!!
read at Frankfurter Sunday Newspaper (04.11.2007)
greets from bochum..germany
2007-12-11 22:49:28
2007-12-16 03:07:09
Cool project, well done. Looking forward your next flight...
2007-12-16 17:12:47
Alan
2007-12-23 21:04:35
2007-12-26 10:23:15
great work I am impress.
2007-12-29 14:52:41
abraos.
ricardo
2008-01-12 16:39:00
We are at the University of Idaho, and do balloon launches too. We put everything up on our site, uirise.wikidot.com, so take a look.
Jess
2008-01-16 08:38:59
This is beautiful. It looks like you are trying several flights. In future flights, you might consider trying to have the images overlapping each other so that you could get something like we got when flying on a 20 hour flight:
http://sei.tamu.edu/geocam/Panoramas/panorama_22-23-50pct.htm
by stitching images together. All images can downloaded from here:
http://sei.tamu.edu/geocam/Final_Pictures/index39.html
Using the maximum focus, we nearly got to the highest satellite resolution:
http://hasp-geocam.blogspot.com/2006/10/comparing-satellite-imagery-and-geocam.html
I have not seen anybody trying to stitch a 360 panorama from one point :-) I am sure it would an awesome view.
Igor.
2008-01-22 00:12:21
2008-01-23 00:26:55
Nice project. I was just wondering if you get cell phone reception at that altitude.
Can you shed some light on it ?
regards
Kashan Ahmad
2008-01-23 01:29:22
it's pretty interesting. You wrote that you didn't need any permit, but do you know if we need any in Europe?
Correct my If I am wrong but I've read some article about gps maybe week ago and it said that GPS is not working over 24km. U.S. government wants to prevent it from using it in enemys cruise missiles. So I think that flashing firmware won't help.
2008-01-23 04:36:08
incredibly amazing: this is what I call smart!!!
2008-01-23 04:46:34
2008-01-23 05:04:23
I've looked at balloon photography for a couple of years now and I'm keen to do it myself sometime. I think your setup and your results are really impressive - well done!
I was really surprised to see the camera twisting and turning wildly during the flight - I had imagined a much calmer flight. I wonder if you can reduce this turning in future flights. Perhaps an attachment to the balloon that is rigid (ie a pole?, bamboo?) instead of using rope. On the way down it might stabilise the camera if you shape the payload so that it is smooth and maybe with stabiliser fins.
Keep it up, I'm totally inspired!
Benjamin
2008-01-23 06:40:13
2008-01-23 08:13:57
Great job! I'm using one of your pictures as a desktop background.
2008-01-23 10:16:49
1. 14 CFR Part 101 is the FAA's rules regarding unmanned balloons, among other things. Para 101.1(a)(4) describes the physical parameters below which balloon-borne payloads are assumed to present negligible risk to air traffic. In general, payload packages under 6 lbs and payload strings under 12 lb are treated no differently from a party balloon which has escaped the grasp of its owner; EOSS tags such payload strings as "exempt". Note that EOSS also assumes a definition of "payload" to be that part of the flight string that does the work, regardless of how it gets to altitude; accordingly, we don't include the weight of the balloon envelope, parachute or cutdown towards that limit.
2008-01-23 12:35:02
Spasibo
2008-01-23 12:59:05
I am VERY impressed! What a wonderful project to undertake! (ehh.. overtake? haha)
The Sky is no longer the limit! I presume your next project will be to get something into low Earth orbit? :-)
Greetings from Denmark
Dan
2008-01-23 13:38:15
I would like to recommend you get your ham radio license, as you can use APRS (Automated Position Reporting System) to track your payload in real-time and maintain a contant contact. Other stations on APRS (there are thousands) can relay position reports over the internet, and you can use various web sites that have Google maps for positioning.
Another site I would recommend is Bill Brown's, WB8ELK. He is the "godfather" of ARHAB and he started it with a launch 20 years ago last August in Findlay, OH. I went to the celebratory "super launch" for that anniversary and one ham used FRS radios with built-in GPS to track his payload down. It was fascinating to be there and hunt down the payloads.
I haven't explored the site thoroughly, but was curious to know how you calculated 31666 meters? The balloon your using looks to be a 300gr balloon which I think is only rated to 80,000 feet (approx 25km).
Again, congrats on a great inaugural flight. I'm passing this site to others in ARHAB to check out.
2008-01-23 13:52:12
2008-01-23 15:48:34
2008-01-23 16:38:28
monster says:
2007-10-22 15:10:28
Insane!