High Altitude Balloon Ideas (2.0) |
High Altitude Balloon Ideas (2.0) |
Feb 25 2011, 08:32 PM
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#1
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
So - now I live in the USA, I've been researching what's possible over here regarding balloon flights.
Firstly - the laws for ham-radio are much more relaxed, so instead of having to use bespoke 10mW transmitters for tracking... you can use an off the shelf 10W APRS tracking device ( http://www.byonics.com/microtrak/mtaio.php ) . You don't need to contact the FAA if it's below a certain mass. There's a lot more country to land it in, rather than the north sea. So - I'd very much like to start thinking about what unique project we, as a bunch of spacey people, could use a high altitude balloon flight for. Here's some of the things that have been done recently in the field of amateur high altitude balloon flights : If you want to be blown away - a cinematography group used the HD-Hero action cameras to record some genuinely breathtaking footage - http://www.youtube.com/user/kevinmacko - They also used a ShadowBox - a sort of data-logger-of-awesome - http://shadowboxlive.com/ You can now get fairly cheap back-up tracking using the SPOT locators http://www.findmespot.com/en/ There's now an almost off the shelf APRS tracking system including data - http://www.rpc-electronics.com/rtrak-hab.php These guys have pulled off a number of flights including panoramas being shot as they went - http://sites.google.com/site/ucsdnearspaceballoon/ SO - what, if anything, might we do that's new, unique, interesting, given the options that have opened up in the last couple of years? |
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Feb 25 2011, 11:23 PM
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#2
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Director of Galilean Photography Group: Members Posts: 896 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93 |
Maybe something interesting to watch as it rises and falls?
Say a normal party balloon, party inflated, that then expands and pops. Is the system stable enough that a tall glass of water or clear tube of water with an open top could be observed, with sublimation and freezing along the way? A visceral thermometer, if you will. Or maybe water inside a balloon that starts boiling due to the low pressure. Would one of those lightning globes behave differently that high up due to additional ionizing radiation (If there is a battery powered one)? What about a radiometer? What about a radio (Maybe the change in density can change the sound frequency, like Helium?)? -------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
-- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality. |
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