Near Space Adventure: Flight 1 – Post Flight
by admin on Oct.10, 2009, under Technical
SUCCESS!!
We launched from Gearhart, Oregon at approximately 9:15 am on October 10, 2009. The balloon and payload rose to an unknown height, then landed about 65 miles down range. Amazingly, the payload returned to earth right about where we expected it to. We experienced the phenomenon of water changing state on the surface of the filter in most of our photos from the first attempt. However, I consider the first attempt a WIN! A passion is born!
Special thanks:
- Thank you so much to our good friends for getting up early on a Saturday morning to help us retrieve the payload.
- Thank you to our loved ones for tolerating our endless child-like enthusiasm for this project.
- Thank you to Jeff Smith at Airgas on Columbia Blvd for all the wonderful data and the helium.
We could not have gotten this project off the ground without you!
Launch #2:
We expect to launch again within the month. With any luck (and math), we will be able to go even higher.
Please visit the original post for an overview on how we accomplished this fantastic first flight. http://justinhamel.com/2009/09/23/near-space-adventure/
If you would like to contact us for further information, please email me at justin@justinhamel.com.
Friends, please donate for our next launch.
Notes:
- This project has caught the attention of some unexpected people. We now have a student artist (attending Reed) interested in exposing some of her art to the harsh environments of the upper atmosphere. Additionally, Mark Nelsen from Fox 12 is following our progress.
- After some discussion, we believe that we filled our first balloon with too much helium. By overfilling the balloon with helium, we believe that we sacrificed some altitude. We now believe that the balloon and payload reached a height of approx 75k feet.
October 12th, 2009 on 9:07 pm
This is really cool. It doesn’t quite look like what you would expect 100,000 feet to look like though.
October 12th, 2009 on 9:09 pm
Where’d you get the balloon? That thing is huge!
October 12th, 2009 on 9:13 pm
We are not sure what altitude we reached. However, we are considering adding an altimeter to the next payload.
The balloon is from kaymont.com. Another place to get them is from scientificsales.com.
November 4th, 2009 on 10:48 am
The GPS doesn’t have an altimeter track? My 10-year-old Garmin does.
November 4th, 2009 on 11:41 am
wk,
Unfortunately, the SPOT GPS tracker assumes that you are on the ground. We plan on purchasing an altimeter.
We got to use the SPOT for free so we’re not complaining.