Arrivals

The PocketFinder has arrived! Straight from our awesome sponsors at PocketFinder, this personal GPS is actually about the size of your wrist, and comes with a soft case (not pictured). Once charged, the device syncs with both the web and free mobile apps available on iOS and Android phones. One of the most useful features of the PocketFinder is the ability to set unlimited geofences on the device, so that when the locator ventures out of the area you specify, you will get a notification! The device can be controlled from either the web app or the mobile app, and the mobile app has all the same features that the web app has. Visit their website to learn more about all the awesome features it offers. We're charging it up right now, and are very excited to test and use this device in Project Daedalus!

Regulating Daedalus

They don't want our project to collide with one of these.

So, our seemingly limitless project may have some government-imposed limits on it. The FAA and the FCC have teamed up to regulate space projects like this one. We have to meet these requirements if we want our flying space balloon to get anywhere off the ground. The main regulations that affect us are:


1. Cell Phones are not permitted to track high-altitude weather balloons in flight.

2. Payloads cannot exceed a package weight/size ratio of three ounces per square inch. *

3. No payload package can exceed 6 lb in weight.

4. Entire weight of all payloads cannot exceed 12 lb in total weight (Excludes weight of balloon).

5. No rope or cable should be used which requires more than 50lb of force to separate payload packages from balloon.

6. No one may launch a high-altitude weather balloon which creates a hazard to other people and property. (i.e. Incorrect parachute, faulty rigging, inappropriate launch location)

7. No one may use a high-altitude weather balloon to drop objects (i.e. gliders and projectiles).

* Determined by dividing total package weight by the area in square inches of the smallest surface.

So, we don't need to worry about most of these requirements. We're not using a cell phone to track our project (Thanks PocketFinder!), so we're already 1 for 7. Our payload is going to be much lighter than 6 lbs so that our balloon can actually lift it all the way to the upper atmosphere, which takes care of #3 and #4. 3 for 7.  We checked with the balloon company, and the balloon rope definitely does not require 50 lb. of force to separate from the payload. We would also have a very hard time recovering the cameras in the payload if it required 50 lb of force to separate from the ropes. We will triple-check our payload, the parachute, and the balloon to ensure a safe and quick flight up and down, so hopefully we won't be creating any hazards (#6). We're definitely not dropping any objects from our balloon, and the package will be guided down by the parachute, so #7 is taken care of. 6 for 7. Basically, we just have to make sure that (final net weight) / (final area) ≤ 3, and we will meet all the regulations!

The Master Plan

You may ask, how will this project work?  Well, here's the basics:  Start with a commercial-grade weather balloon...  not something for a birthday from Party City or the local toy store, this is a serious balloon that carries scientific equipment.  Once we get ourselves one of those, we're going to hook it up to a payload: a rugged-but-light container (a.k.a. foam beer cooler) that will carry our cameras and gear.  A parachute will be attached between the balloon and payload.  Now, we fill the balloon with enough helium to get the lift strength we need to get to a certain altitude. The balloon will be lifted up, and if we have enough helium and a light enough payload, it should get to about 90,000 to 100,000 feet, the top of the atmosphere, with the cameras taking video the whole time.

This is roughly what the project will look like in action

Well, that's cool and all, but how is it going to come down?  If we have enough helium in the balloon, and it gets to the above-mentioned height, it's reaching the point where there's basically no atmosphere left... so, do you remember your high school physics?  Balloon filled with gas, rising and reaching decreasing atmosphere (pressure) outside the balloon = balloon expands until... "BOOM"...  balloon bursts, payload and parachute start falling back to earth, parachute opens when there's enough air under it, and... the whole contraption (minus the balloon that graciously gave its life for our project) falls gently back to earth. Hopefully. This whole flight, from launch to landing, should be about 2-3 hours.

Then what?  Well, we go find it.  Fast. There's a bunch of cool cameras and gadgets in there, which people may like and decide to keep (assuming the payload has not become a flattened pile of foam and expensive electronics).  Our sponsors are counting on us to recover and publish some awesome footage of the upper atmosphere and space, and if the cameras they paid for are missing, then we will have hell to pay.

So, we will track it with the on-board GPS, and try to stay roughly under where it is during the flight (courtesy of the PocketFinder, which will broadcast its location until it reaches the far reaches of the atmosphere, and then resume its broadcasts on the way back down).  Hopefully, this will lead us to its eventual landing site.

Assuming everything else goes as planned, the "where" factor of the landing is the big worry.  It could land in water, high up in a tree, on the roof of a shopping mall, in the courtyard of a maximum security prison, in restricted secret government areas, on top of a mountain, or in many other places difficult or inadvisable to get to.  We have to pray and hope the wind brings it down in a nice field of grass a few yards from a quiet, isolated country road, or at least somewhere we can get to it without rappelling gear and assault weapons.

So IF it went up and flew over terrestrial obstacles, IF the cameras and gear worked properly at high altitudes and extreme cold temperatures, IF it gets to burst altitude rather than just hovering for days and traveling around the planet a few times, IF the parachute opens properly on descent, IF it lands safely and relatively softly, and IF said location is somewhere accessible, IF we get to it before someone else finds it, and IF the cameras have substantive footage, then we're going to have one kick-ass video from SPACE. What could possibly go wrong? 

ZePost about the ZLog7R

The ZLog7R.   Look at that display.   Fancy.

Well, we just found an awesome sensor rig to send up into the atmosphere. The Hexpert Systems ZLog7R is designed specifically for high-altitude balloon projects, and it records:

• Altitude
• Temperature
• GPS Location
• Atmospheric Pressure

So, yeah, we're kind of a big deal now. Real science and everything. This will set us back about $140, stretching our budget even further, but I'm placing the order tonight. Only the best for the Daedalus.

Sensors + Sponsors + Science. The possibilities are endless.