We had some great images from this flight. The cloud cover created some interesting details.
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Today we conducted our post flight review. Ari, Katie, and Milo discussed what went well and what could be improved upon for the launch. Below is a pic of the board ideas. Overall impressions were that there was a lot to work on but the big metric for success, everybody was safe and payload recovered, were met. Saturday we have a great learning launch. Ari, Milo, and Katie did a great job of learning how to conduct a launch and recover for a high altitude balloon. We launched near LaCrosse, WA. We got on site around 10:45 a.m. and began launch activities. As this was a learning launch I set a slow pace so that the students could have a chance to absorb the volume of information being thrown at them. There was a problem with the radio system Katie was working to develop. There fore there was a delay in launch. There was a healthy wind, around 20 to 30 mph, that made determining the lift difficult. We estimated our lift at launch was 15 lbs. More that we wanted by about 7 lbs. We did use the balloon containment sheet which worked well but made lift difficult to determine. The flight followed the prediction very closely. This years balloon launch was textbook perfect. The launch conditions were such that we could hold the last component in the train and simply release it upon countdown. The flight followed prediction extremely well. Landing occurred only a few miles from the predicted landing spot. The 3 primary experiment were successful as well. The first experiment was to determine if a passive directional control of the experimental module was possible. The flight video demonstrated that both the rotational speed and the angle of rotation was smaller than previous flights. This is encouraging and we have plans to add an active control for the next flight. The second experiment concerned sound at altitude and the student presented his results at the UI engineering expo. Lastly, the PongSat were a hit with the elementary students and they learned a lot about the scientific method.
This year two students have signed up for dual enrollment with Near Space Engineering. One student will be investigating if it is possible to design the experiment module in such a way as to have it weather cock with the winds. While the winds are variable there should be pockets of relative consistency which would yield a constant pointing orientation. This project is in anticipation of needing a relatively stable orientation for the solar eclipse launch. The second project is about acoustics. I'm not sure of the details as of yet. In addition we will be carrying the 4th grade pongsats again this year.
After a wait the weather finally cooperated, albeit with a healthy dose of wind. Which was good in that the conditions were ideal for testing our newly made balloon containment system. BCS. There were a couple of new things this year which worked out well. First, we launched on a Friday which meant that it was a class trip as opposed to being optional. This means there were all hands on deck for the launch activities. A big plus. Secondly, we took a group of 4th graders to launch pongsats. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed the launch. Them accompanying us had an alternative motive. It was a pilot for conducting a district wide 4th grade launch. The 4th grade teacher, Kathryn Bonzo, and I are sorting out details of what worked and what didn't to make a future launch even more successful. Thirdly, we conducted a proof of concept for the BCS. Winds over 5 or 6 miles per hour made wrangling the balloon difficult. The idea is simple. A large piece of fabric to place over the balloon while being inflated and while waiting for the count down. Muslin was used to make a 5 by 7 yard fabric tarp. This material was chosen to reduce the chance of a static charge developing on the balloon. Eyelets were made at each corner and the midway points between the corners. These were tied to milk jugs filled with water. Some eyelets tore out and the jugs were not massive enough. Lessons learned. BUT the idea worked perfect. So a redesign is due for next year. The launch went perfectly and the balloon reached around 64k ft and was cut down by the timer cut down system. Future launches will have a longer time. >90 mins. Recovery happened in about 30 minutes after the module landed. Mostly due to stopping for a bathroom break.
The weather forecast for May 16th's launch is looking good as of today. Sunny with winds around 4 mph. High of 77 degrees F. I ran a predict today and the jet stream is blowing straight east. Looks like Washtucna will be our launch site. Below is the predict. 
Well, the weather once again is not cooperating. So we must move the launch back again. This time we will move it enough to hopefully totally bypass the weather. So the new launch date is May 16th. Fingers crossed. :)
This Friday's launch, 4/18, had to be pushed back to Friday, 4/25, due to weather. There is a 50% chance of rain and major cloud cover. Hopefully the weather will cooperate next week.
This year promises to have some interesting experiments on board. First up is an electric field measurement device that will determine the sign and size of the static charge that builds up on the balloon as it rises. There's not a lot of background information out there so this will be a big experiment. Next is an imaging device that will mount a camera outside the module and be able to rotate to give varying perspectives. Also on board will be an elementary school's pongsats. The 4th grade class at Moscow Charter School will be developing a string of pongsat to send up. they should be interesting.
Launch conditions were far less than optimal. The ground wind was out of the west south-west at a steady 20 mph with gust up to 30 mph. Inflation was hampered by the balloon oscillating from the gusts. Therefore ascertaining an accurate lift proved impossible and our ascent speed hovered around 2.5 ft/s. An hour into the flight the balloon altitude had only reached 49k feet.
The technical aspects of the flight were almost flawless.We sent aloft 1 still camera, an upward and sideward pointing video camera, a live video transmitter, and a LabQuest recording alpha, beta, and gamma radiation levels. In addition a new and improved cut down system was on board. The cut down system work perfectly. A couple of minutes prior to launch the timer was set to 60 minutes and executed on time. The only hiccup occurred with the radiation meter. A switch was not moved prior to launch so no data was recorded. The live video feet exceeded our performance metrics and maintained contact until 30 kft. Once the command module was cut from the balloon we did not regain the live video feed. We're not sure why as we expected the link to reestablish once the module fell below the cut out altitude. The agreed upon most likely culprit was that the antenna was spinning to fast. Overall a good flight considering the bad launch conditions. Well, the launch for April 13 was scrubbed. The winds were predicted to be around 20 mph and rains and thunderstorms were predicted. The actual weather outdid these predictions. The winds cranked up to around 40 mph and rain was on and off all day. It would have been a terrible day for a launch. So, we've pushed back the launch to May 18th. The weather should settle down by then.
We're nearing the launch date. The weather is looking rather windy for the the morning of the launch so it seems iffy at this point. The university launched last weekend and the weather was perfect. I saw Dave at a baseball game that afternoon. So launch and recovery went perfectly.
I've been thinking about increased wind launches and how to get around the issue. What I've come up with so far is a smooth cloth or cargo net that can be used to hold the balloon and payload down. Then on count down it could be released. Or after count down it would be released when a break in the wind came about. This might make windy launches possible because balloon management would not be an issue. Look very good. Steady easterly direction with average drift of around 60 miles. The weather is not optimal as of right now.
The predicts are looking iffy. There is a 65 mile SE drift. If we launch in Washtucna then we land near Genesse.
Weather and jet stream were not cooperating for a launch. Not sure when we'll get it in.
We are coming down to the launch date, Apr 14th, but due to weather forecasts we have scrubbed the launch. Of course after we made the decision the forecast changed. So we'll see what happens. It would be cool to do the launch with the university due to the fact that they're launching two balloons. One with a NASA project. In addition there might be a couple of scientist from NASA on site. The students would think that is cool.
The launch went perfect today. There was no ground wind and cloud cover was around 10%. We maxed out around 75 k ft and the tracking went perfect. We actually got to see the whole thing land. I took plenty of pics and will get them on line as soon as possible. More to come soon, right now I'm stressed for time because I have another workshop to attend.
Today we practice directional finding with the beacons we made. My daughter did a great job soldering the beacon and it work perfect. We went outside with some yagi antennas to find the hidden beacons. It was really cool and we learned a lot. Tomorrow is our launch day. Things are on track for that.
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