This balloon will use our new and improved “Peach1” tracker board and a small USB Key Fob camera.
Success!
The balloon was launched on schedule with the tracker and camera operating. Though the tracker experienced a few reboots during flight, we were able to track the payload to the landing spot and retrieve it.
Balloon | Latex 150g |
---|---|
Lifting Gas | Helium |
Payload | Tracker, Micro camera |
Payload container | Plastic bottle and bubble wrap |
Max Payoad Weight | 150g |
Flight Time | 45-90 min |
Cutdown | Balloon Burst |
Recovery | 12“ Parachute |
Tracking | Peach1 HAB tracker |
Telemetry | GPS and temperature data. |
Item | Weight (grams) |
---|---|
Batteries - (1) 300ma LiPo | 9 |
Batteries - (1) AAA Ultimate Lithium | 8 |
Payload container | 25 |
Tracker + Counterpoise | 19 |
Parachute + guyline | 17 |
Balloon | 150 |
Balloon attachment (tape) | 10 |
Camera 1 | 19 |
Total (goal: 300) | 257 |
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Item | Estimated Cost |
---|---|
Latex Weather Balloon (150g) | $25 |
Helium or Hydrogen (80 cu ft cylinder) | $66 |
Mini camera & SD card | $30 |
APRS Tracker | $150 |
Packaging, Parachute | $10 |
Total | $281 |
Predictor | http://predict.habhub.org/ |
Payload Mass | 100g |
Balloon Mass | 200g Kaymont |
Total Mass | 300g |
Target Ascent Rate | 6.0 m/s |
Descent Rate | 8.0 m/s |
Gas | Helium |
Burst Diameter | 2.4m |
Start Location | Trumansburg Fairgrounds, New York |
Notes:
Burst Altitude | 10464 m |
Ascent Rate | 7.52 m/s |
Neck Lift | 1550 g |
Launch Volume | 60.2 cu ft |
Flight Range | 26.2 km |
Flight Time | 40 min |
*Note: The balloon manufacturer claims 15,000m burst altitude. We are filling this balloon a LOT.
Using volume of a sphere for 60.2 cu ft
We called it 15' 3“ circumference.
Expected pounds of gas to use:
PSI = volume / .0265 PSI = 60.2 / .0265 PSI = 2272 PSI drop in tank.
At the time of the fill, we put in more gas. The tanks were nearly empty, and we wanted a short flight, so we put in a fair bit more gas. The balloon diameter should have been about 4'8”. I'm 5'11“ and the balloon looked about as tall as me in this shot. Assuming a 6' diameter, we filled the balloon with about 113 cu ft of helium. It didn't seem to make the flight shorter, however. The balloon burst much higher than predicted.
Watch it here:
Predicted | Actual | |
Burst Altitude | 10,464m | 13,500m |
Ascent Rate | 7.52 m/s | 8.57 m/s |
Descent Rate | 8.0 m/s | 8.91 m/s |
Flight Range | 26.2 km | 49.54 km |
Flight Time | 40 min | 49 min |
Note, given that the balloon was overfilled at launch to nearly 6' in diameter (113 cu ft), the predictor indicates that the ascent rate should have been about 8.66m/s. This very closely matches our observed ascent rate of 8.57m/s. Let's hear it for science!
The payload temperature dropped to about -4c during the peak of the flight. This did not interfere with the tracker, though the battery voltage did drop considerably due to the temperature (from 1.64v to 1.38v). It rebounded as the temps came back up.
The 808 camera performed very well. Prior to flight, it was measured at using about 110ma while recording. We used a 300mah LiPo battery for the flight, and we had over 2 hours of video on the camera when retrieved. Each 10 minute block of video used approximately a gigabyte of space. The 16G SD card had just over 12G of footage on it.
The balloon landed on the roof of a duplex. We fished it off with a few antenna whips duct taped onto an extensible pole saw.