Spring Break and the launch date are rapidly approaching...

Well Friends,

Spring Break is rapidly approaching, and my expected launch date is coming with it. I still need to assemble one important piece: the parachute. It is going to be simple and small, but enough to slow our near-spacecraft down in the atmosphere and help prevent any damage to the delicate electronics inside. I have also added a "prop" of sorts in front of the main camera, in the hopes of attracting some attention from one of my favorite beverage producers. Red Bull is one heck of an energy drink, and now that I'm in my 30's it helps to combat fatigue after a long day at the office vs. giving me energy. I'll post more about this later, but as some of you may know Red Bull is sponsoring an attempt at the highest freefall in history. Joe Kittinger still holds this record from the 1950's as part of Project Excelsior (a high-altitude balloon program that was a precursor to the U.S. space program), and my plan is to send a can of Red Bull into near-space. Who knows? Maybe the company will express interest in the footage and I'll get my corporate sponsorship rolling (and some Red Bull as partial compensation wouldn't hurt either!).

Payload nearly complete!

My payload is coming together nicely! I am posting several photos so everyone can see what it looks like and how things are moving along. Most amateur near-space balloons have a problem with spinning, which I hope to avoid by designing the payload differently. Fins are on three sides of the payload, and I am also going to attach the payload to the balloon with 2-4 strings instead of 1. With only one string, the payload swings around until tension builds up and it then rotates the opposite direction until the tension builds up yet again and the process repeats itself for the entire flight. While I have yet to attach my payload to a balloon for testing, I've kept this in mind and think having 2 or more attachments will limit the amount of spinning so that it will only spin when the balloon does. Additionally, a hole was added to the bottom of the payload to take a video of the first hour of ascent. I'm trying to add another camera so it will have three but two may have to suffice. My A480 has not yet been ported for CHDK and as such can only take a one hour video at this time. My wife's old cell phone camera will record for an hour as well, but it is light and while the resolution is limited I want every camera I can put on it to limit the chance of a complete camera failure. So far, the lithium batteries have held out long enough during testing that I shouldn't need an additional power supply, but I may go ahead and do it for sheer caution purposes. The cameras each have a DC out, and they could each be plugged into a power pack of some kind. Not sure if the weight will make this viable, but the added security might be worth it. Launch week is from March 20th to March 28th; I'm using the whole week so I can pick the day when winds are the calmest and the jet stream is furthest away from Arkansas.

Almost there!

The GPS unit came in. This is good because a test using the boost mobile GPS i290 phone confirmed that GPS does not work outside a small area surrounding Interstate 30. I would not have found my payload had I tried to use the boost mobile phone....man that would have been awful and a huge waste of time, money, and effort. So, I am now putting the payload together. I'll post pictures of it when fully assembled. Now all I need to do is put that together, test the current battery configuration, and rent the helium tank. I'm testing the battery's to see if they'll take pictures long enough for the entire flight, or I may need to add another power supply somehow. Given how much I've had to reconfigure everything else, it'd be a real shame to get the payload up into nearspace without having enough juice to take the appropriate pictures!

500-gram balloon

The 500-gram balloon came in today. This big daddy is 10-feet in diameter at normal inflation, and has a burst diameter of 15-feet! It holds over 500 cubic feet of helium, but the helium tank I'm renting is only 300 feet. Still, I think this will be good because the balloon will A) Have 20 pounds of lift; and B) be a little more than half-full. This allows for a good ascent rate (which is important to get up there fast as possible), and a higher ultimate altitude because the balloon can expand more.



Now all I'm waiting on is the new SPOT GPS unit. Once that comes in and the account has been set up for tracking, I will put the entire payload together and start finalizing my project for launch. The launch date has been set for the early morning hours of Saturday, March 20th if weather permits. If the jet stream is too far south and in Arkansas I'll wait until it clears up but if everything is looking good I'll launch that day. Also, I can rent the helium tank for the entire week I'm off for spring break, which will allow an optimum time frame for launch and preparation. I want everything to be as perfect as possible because I only have one shot at this. If it is not successful, it might be a while before I will do it again. That is why it MUST be successful! But of course, the "best laid plans of mice and men..."



One more package to come in, and then I can finalize the payload and put it all together. It's getting closer, and sometimes I can hardly believe what I am about to do. The idea that an average person can put together a small project that offers views of space reserved often for astronauts and an elite few is truly innovative, though I am hardly the first to do this. I think it is a good thing that "regular" people are doing this now. It makes space that much less mystifying; it's attainable. The day average people can go to space and make something out of themselves is the day I'm waiting for...

Sunrise from space...the expensive way!

I'm trying to do this on a shoestring budget...

Hopefully I'll be succesful....

We'll know very soon!

MIT students

Almost forgot. I'm using some of the methods outlined by the two MIT students; here is a link to their website so you can see photos and videos of what I plan to do. My idea is a bit different though, because I plan on launching several hours before sunrise. I should be able to have photos/videos of the city lights at night, and my goal is to see the sun as it comes around the sphere of our humble yet glorious planet. Closest photo I've seen that resembles what I want to do was taken from the space shuttle astronauts and ISS crew. I'm posting a picture of that too so you can get an idea of what I'm trying to do....

The remarkable thing about my photos (if successful) would be that I did them for around $300 instead of millions and billions of dollars spent to put astronauts into space who then take photos of sunrise (the components I used added up to a little over $300..(this doesn't include the parts I purchased but then ended up either upgrading or discarding after testing; call it a lesson in near-space research!). I also did this as an individual project...I am not an engineer or physicist. I do not have an elaborate budget or crew to depend on. I do have an advanced degree, but it's in psychology and counseling, not anything remotely aerospace. However, I do have a few university colleagues who have assisted me with some of the engineering and physics aspects of this project. Once we have a successful launch I'll talk more about the next step and who will be involved...I'm excited, and hope you are too.

Here is the link to the MIT student's website:

http://space.1337arts.com/

A470, SPOT GPS, and a bigger balloon

Well, things are moving along but I've learned a few lessons. I wanted to keep this as cheap as possible, so I bought the smallest balloons I thought might do the job. Since 15 cubic feet of helium will lift one pound, and my payload is around that, I thought several 30 gram balloons would do the trick. They will not. In fact, the 200 gram balloon would only lift the GPS-enabled phone and NOT the camera at all. So, I went ahead and ordered a 500-gram balloon. With a 10-foot diameter and around 523 cubic feet of helium at normal inflation size, it should have PLENTY of free lift to get the job done. I need the balloon to go up as fast as possible, while still having enough space within the balloon to burst at over 100,000 feet. Actually, my 300 cubic-foot helium tank won't will it up but a bit over half-way. 300 cubic feet should provide 20 pounds of lift, and given that my craft should weigh around 1 pound this thing should really fly!

Another issue I've decided warrants change is my boostmobile i290 phone. It only works if the cellphone has reception, and I looked at my coverage map on boost mobile's website....it wasn't pretty. I could attempt it anyway, add an antenna and see if it holds up but given the fact I live in a rural, heavily wooded area (timber is big business here) I think it would be a fool's game to try and launch anyway. I need a GPS receiver that doesn't use cellphone coverage at all. So, enter the SPOT GPS unit. Yes, it's about $100 for the unit, shipping, and then another $9.99 per month for coverage and $49.99 per year for tracking, I think the added security is worth it. I can also see the value of having it since several years ago I went sailing and was literally marooned with my son on a small island...luckily I had my cellphone and was able to call my wife, who called the authorities and came to get us (and our boat which had gotten loose and sailed away by itself....) but if my phone hadn't had coverage or had died I would have been in real trouble until they finally launched a rescue effort; hours or days later without any food or water...

So, I justified the expense and bought it. I think it's a wise investment. Also, I figured out how to turn the LCD off on my Canon A470. I plan on putting at least two cameras in the payload if weight allows, because I'm also concerned about the risk of camera failure or not getting the "sunrise over the sphere of the earth" shot I'm wanting. One camera will take stills every 5 seconds, and another will take video; if I can put a third, it will too take stills on other side of the balloon.

I also found out about helium cost yesterday. The welding supply guys were eager to help out, and said if I kept the tank over a weekend they'd only charge a $50 deposit on the tank which would be refunded when I return it. It is normally almost $500 per month to rent the tank. 300-cubic feet of helium is $100, which isn't outside my budget. So, I'll have plenty of helium, a tank to put it in, and the project is coming together. Altogether, what I'll be launching appears to have a cost of around $250-300, which will be fine considering the upgrades I've added. I just can't justify using only a cellphone GPS phone when coverage is only a few miles east & west of my area. If the phone goes outside of that range, It will be unable to receive the cell phone signals and given the isolated nature of southern Arkansas, I'll likely never find it....maybe a random hunter might see it but the woods around here supposedly hide Bigfoot as well...if Bigfoot can hide here, so can my payload! I'm not risking it. The GPS unit will be worthwhile and the battery life is rated at 2-3 weeks so I see little risk in using it unless the unit completely fails for some reason. Even if I only have a broad search area, I will have at least a week or two to find it....that's good enough for me. The accuracy is supposed to be with 20-feet which should be plenty. I find that to be an acceptable risk.

So when is the launch date? I'm hoping sometime in March. Maybe spring break would be the best time, from March 19th to the 29th...that will give me time to wait for low wind conditions and the perfect launch time...

Remember, we're launching before sunrise so I can try and get a photo/video of the sun coming around the sphere of the earth! A view normally seen by the few who fly and work in space. I'm looking forward to making space accessible to the masses. A pipe dream maybe? I think given time, the right individuals, and donations/profits we can build a small restaurant with a fabulous view. Are you ready? If my first camera launch is successful and I get my sunrise photos, I'll start this program in earnest and enlist the help of my colleagues at HSU. A high-altitude zeppelin with a restaurant and viewing area could be very profitable, and relatively cheap to run vs. rides on the ISS, a Soyuz capsule around the moon, or a "budget" $200,000 Space Ship Two ticket for 5-minutes of weightlessness....

No, you won't get the weightlessness with my near-space ship, but you'll have one heck of a view and potentially stay for hours and hours...maybe even the evening or night if I can build a small hotel or bedrooms. The airships of the early 20th century also had something similar, but I guess they didn't want to or have the ability to go up to 100,000 feet or so.

That's one more issue for research: airship design and operation. Most of this comes from the early 1900's and one might think it's out of date, but that was when airships were the primary mode of intercontinental transportation (besides boats). Heck, even the Hindenburg travelled across the Atlantic 17 times and only crashed and burned when they applied a type of paint that was highly flammable...not a good idea with a hydrogen-filled craft.

Actually, I've considered hydrogen because at 100K feet there is very little air. Certainly not enough for combustion...but still, I don't think my restaurant could become a reality if I used hydrogen...10% greater lift and they can hold 50% more fuel than a helium-filled craft, but people have these images of the Hindenburg in their heads despite the fact that helium craft can and have fallen out of the sky ("Oh, the humanity!" Remember that one? Well....I've seen the old newsreel of it but of course I wasn't there :-)).