2013 WSGC Elijah High Altitude Balloon Project

11/30/2013

A brief walk-through of the capsule structure, and locations of the electronics platforms.

11/20/2013

09/21/2013

Week 10 Update

This week, the team was entirely focused on preparing for the Space Conference that began on Thursday, August 15th. The two day conference held a particular significance for the team as it was where we would present the findings of our project and also represented the final stage of a successful project.

In order to prepare for the conference the team spent large amounts of time sequestered together writing a proceedings report for the conference and editing a slide show for the presentation. A poster was also developed that encompassed the entirety of the work accomplished by the team over the summer. The poster was inclusive of the launch team portion of the project and included details about the design of the payload and the data gathered of the system, as well as information about the flight of the balloon. In addition to the creation of the presentation the team decided that it might be a good idea to rehearse what was to be said and by whom; to achieve this the team generated a loose script that covered the main points of the project and identified who would say what at what time, in short approximately 8 hours of rehearsal.

August 15th marked the start of the 23rd Annual Wisconsin Space Grant Conference. the team enjoyed a day at the conference listening to various presentations sessions and presenting the poster so laboriously erected. On August 16th, the last day of the conference, the team was scheduled to present our research to all in attendance. The presentation went very smoothly, and ended precisely within the goal time range of 20 to 22 minutes. The team then entertained a multitude of queries from the audience before resuming our seats to watch the final presentation. The final presentation was followed by a rewards luncheon, unfortunately we did not win the poster contest, but were recognized for the work that we did over the course of the internship.

09/20/2013

Week 9 Update

On August 8th, the team decided to launch again due to the fact that no data was collected during the first launch. Dan spent the entire week up until the launch fixing bugs in the coding. Throughout the week, he ran a few successful three-hour tests. This means that all of our sensors and SD-cards were functioning and collecting data for 3 hours. The day before the launch, the gps burnt out and was removed from the capsule.

In order to prepare for launch, the team researched some more locations and looked at weather and wind patterns. August 8th looked clear, so the team decided to launch that day at the same location as the first launch. Even though there were other possible locations, the team decided to return to August Derleth Park in Sauk City because they knew that this location was good to fly at.

Setting up and preparing for launch went much smoother the second time around, seeing as the team already had experience with what had to be done. As we were waiting to release the balloon, we noticed a group of kids and their parents watching us. We invited them over and began explaining what we were doing. The experience was beneficial to both the kids and the team. The team enjoyed sharing their work with the next generation, and the kids thought that seeing a balloon launch was the coolest thing ever. The kids started a countdown from 10 and cheered as we released the balloon. As soon as the balloon was up, we began the chase.

Once again, Dan’s car was set up for the telemetry. About 45 minutes into the chase, the balloon began to lose altitude. At first we thought it was due to the jet stream, but at 73,000ft the balloon would have been above the jet stream. We chased the balloon to a farmer’s field near Neosho, WI. The combine driver had seen the balloon descend and thankfully hadn’t run it over!

This time, we got good data, and were ready to prepare for the conference the following week.

08/15/2013

Today is the first day of the 23rd Annual Wisconsin Space Conference at Marquette University. We are excited to present what we've learned over the past 10 weeks! Thank you all for your support throughout this project. We couldn't have done it without you!

08/09/2013

This video show the payload returning to ground level after the flight.

08/09/2013

This video depicts the second launch of the payload.

08/09/2013

Video clips from the second launch will be posted over the next few days as the full video can be edited and analyzed (some unexpected footage was seen in the initial viewing); we will keep you updated as much as possible.

08/08/2013

Second launch tomorrow August 8th! Weather and flight prediction look great!!

08/06/2013

A sneak peek at our master assembly CAD renderings

08/06/2013

08/06/2013

This shot was taken near peak altitude.