I'm Mike, and my 12 year old son Harrison (he prefers Harry) and I recently decided to launch a weather balloon with 2 cameras and attempt to recover it after it lands. We were able to get the entire setup back, but not everything went according to plan. We plan to launch more of these in the future, so this was a great learning experience before we start launching more expensive cameras and electronics.
How we got started
About a year ago, I thought I might introduce my son to the joys of model rocketry. I launched them when I was about his age, and loved it. I found a few
YouTube videos of the basic Estes model rockets many of us may have had as kids, and also
a few of high power "G" through "J" motor rockets. I told him we'd start with the small ones, and if he really found that he enjoyed it, we could work on high power rocket licenses. Leaving him to his videos, I went off to cook dinner.
My son came into the kitchen a few minutes later and showed me
a video of the
Qu8k amateur rocket launch that reached over 120,000 feet and said "We have to do this."
Well, the Qu8k Rocket had a budget of $10,000. Not having any intention of spending ten thousand dollars on a model rocket, I started looking into how we might achieve similar results with a markedly dissimilar budget. What I discovered was
HABHUB - HAB being an acronym for High Altitude Ballooning.
What we plan to do in the future
Night Launch
Something I've not seen much of is nighttime HAB photography. It may be that there's a reason for this... but I think we'll try it. I believe that if we launch right at sunset, we will catch some amazing images on the way up, as the ascent rate of the balloon will make the most of the usable sunlight. Then, on the descent, we may get some good images of the ground lights.
Hydrogen Lift Gas
Helium is stupid expensive. It was artificially cheap a decade ago, as the U.S. Government sold off its strategic reserves, and the rebound price is nearly insulting. Hydrogen is cheaper and has more lift potential, but of course can also kill you if there's a spark. We'll complete the safety course recommended and give hydrogen a try at some point.
Live Video
We're looking at ways to live stream video of the flight, and have a few promising options to investigate. We will have a page devoted to those options up soon.
Improved Imagery and Data:
Video
We will be launching an HD video recorder. This will require a backup power source to record an entire 3-4 hour flight, which is a substantial amount of weight. So, we are weighing whether we want to only record the relatively stable ascent and miss the relatively chaotic descent, thus saving weight, or not. Either way we will have video for sure next flight.
Better Cameras
The Canon A1100IS cameras we used produced some breathtaking photos, but they are relatively low quality images and much better can be achieved as we get more comfortable with the idea of sending expensive electronics into space.
Temperature and Altitude Logging
On our first flight we used
HAPpy_intervalometer which is capable of logging the outputs of the temperature sensors in Canon point and shoot cameras. What we got back was pretty coarse, although still useful. There are a variety of better options, and we will include one of them in future flights.
Improved Recovery Options:
Better GPS
Our next mission will either have the premade
Eagle flight computer from
High Altitude Science, or I'll build
the Arduino-based Trackuino. Both of these options rely on APRS which requires a HAM Technician's license (in the USA) and also need a line of sight to the HAM station, meaning it probably won't work on the ground. Therefore, we will need...
Secondary GPS
Either cell phone based or satellite based GPS will be used in case the APRS radio can't be used to locate the landing site.
Audio/Visual Alert
Either a buzzer and strobe connected to a timer, or a cell phone with the camera LED set to flash when the phone rings will be used to make locating the landing site easier.
