Missing...

Well, after two days of searching rough, steep terrain at the last reported coordinates for Daedalus 1, we've come up short. It's not where it's supposed to be, unless: A) it's stuck high in the treetops, which is quite possible in the spot it landed; or B) the coordinates it reported at the end are off.  We've searched that area pretty extensively, but it's just not there.  We don't think it could have been taken by someone, given how remote and difficult the area is.

It's hard to convey the disappointment after this much work and time and money have been spent on this project. This is a huge setback, but we haven't given up.  We are assessing various options for trying to locate the craft.

The helpful people at PocketFinder are jumping in to help analyze the logs.  Local property owners around the landing site have been great and are on the lookout. We do have a few more ideas to try to find it, but we are focusing on more technical analysis of the logs that may direct us back to another spot to search, or the help of the locals who are keeping an eye out for it. If that doesn't work, we have a few other ideas we'd move on to next.  The story isn't over yet.  Hopefully we will find it soon!  

Daedalus Has Landed!

Well, the launch was a success. The recovery is still a work in progress, however.

The prediction website had forecasted a landing 2 hours later around Yountville, north of Napa, and we headed up that way, hoping to soon get an update from the Pocketfinder that had it safely back into range, and hopefully around where we were waiting for it.  At around 5:30, we finally got the notification we had been waiting for.  The PocketFinder was back in range again, dropping fast from 34,000 feet, and, astoundingly, was coming down 10 miles from where we were! We couldn't believe that the prediction website had been so accurate, and it was an incredible relief that it was back and seemingly still intact.  We had sent a craft into "near space" and it was now returning to earth.

We headed up into the mountains to find the parachute and capsule, and ended up on some very rough back roads. Luckily, we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle. The terrain was much steeper and rougher than we expected as we climbed up further into the mountains, and we were finally led to a vineyard at the top of a mountain in Napa Valley. This was actually a private vineyard, and the owners were kind enough to let us begin exploring the property. Once inside, we hiked to the top of the mountain, and looked for the parachute using the PocketFinder Android/iOS app in conjunction with Google Maps. We finally narrowed it down to an area of about 100 sq. ft., but the area was incredibly dense, thick trees and bushes. We searched for around 2 hours, but to our dismay, we couldn't find it by the time the sun had set, and the light had left the valley. We called it a day, and drove back into town to find a hotel to stay in. We are confident that we will find it tomorrow, and will have the recovered videos up as soon as we do.

LAUNCHED!

After 9 months of work, some unexpected delays, budget and timing challenges, and endless details to manage, at 3:00pm today, Daedalus-1 had a successful launch!  It was truly thrilling to watch, and we ended up with a nice audience of well-wishers and curious onlookers to join the send-off.

Tying safety lines and filling up the balloon

After running various scenarios and predictions based on the weather that morning, we faced a choice - go for a "safe" launch in the central valley south of San Jose with very few challenging predicted landing spots, but not as spectacular of a view... or a riskier launch south of San Francisco that would take the balloon directly over the city, over the Bay Bridge, over the San Francisco Bay itself, and up into Marin County and Napa Valley, some of the most scenic areas anywhere.  Unquestionably this would give us more spectacular video footage, but there were far more possible things that could go wrong on the landing - namely, landing in the bay, or in various lakes, or in more mountainous and rugged terrain.  The weather in San Francisco was so clear, that we ultimately chose to go for the riskier, but more beautiful flight path.  We would launch from Franklin D. Roosevelt Elementary School in Daly City, CA... the perfect location for our proposed flight path, and a nice spot used each weekend by amateur RC plane clubs who were happy to host and help us.

The 5th tank of helium topping off the balloon

After testing all the equipment, verifying all the settings, and assembling the final parts of the capsule, we hit one big snag.  We had purchased two tanks of helium, totaling 140 cubic feet, giving us a healthy cushion (or so we thought) over the 115 c.f. that we should need to get the proper lift.  After depleting both tanks of helium filling the balloon, there wasn't nearly enough lift.  The tanks did not have the amount of helium they should have had, or we had a leak somewhere in the regulator.  Now we had a partially-filled ballon with not enough helium, and no way to call it off.  (Helium is EXPENSIVE these days!).  But without enough lift, we won't get to the burst altitude, and may not even clear the nearby hills and trees.  So with a last-minute panic call to the local Party City, we had found 7 consumer-sized 18 c.f. tanks available and raced to get them and return to continue the launch.

Tying off the balloon after filling

With enough helium FINALLY in the balloon to lift our test weights assuring the proper lift, we were finally ready... a few hours later than planned, but still with great weather.  We went over our final checklist, and finally cut our safety line holding down our balloon, and ran the payload into an open area to make sure it launched safely.  It did, and we watched it disappear into the coastal fog at around 3:00 p.m. today.  The ascent rate seemed just about right.  We jumped on the Pocketfinder site and got 5 or 6 updates on its location and altitude as it rose, but then, as expected, it rose above cellular range and we lost touch with it.  All seemed well, and it took off in the direction of the predicted path we had charted.  It was incredibly exciting to see it take off after all the work over the past months.

Now comes the chase... and the waiting.  With no more real-time updates arriving for around two hours, we have no choice but to head north across the Golden Gate Bridge, then continuing northeast into Napa county.  The prediction website has forecasted a landing at 5:00 pm, 2 hours after liftoff, landing somewhere around Yountville, north of Napa.  We're headed that way to be ready for the pocketfinder to make contact again after coming back down below 30,000 feet.  Fingers crossed!

Final Preparations

We are ready to go.

The capsule is completed, the cameras are charged and have fresh memory cards, the data logger has been tested, helium has been purchased, and launch sites have been surveyed and narrowed down.

Today, we did our final checks on the project. We drove up to Daly City, near San Francisco, and selected the launch site from three possible locations. We will be launching from Franklin D. Roosevelt Elementary School, as they have a nice open field with minimal trees and obstructions to hinder the early minutes of the flight. Our only concerns are that there may be a low fog layer according to the weather forecasts, but the balloon should be clear of that in a matter of minutes. We selected this location because, according to predictions made by the CUSF Landing Predictor, the balloon should fly right over San Francisco, capturing amazing views of the city and providing for a great first hour or so of footage.

Projected flight path
(Click to enlarge)

A few weeks ago, we picked up some helium from a welding shop for the balloon. We purchased 85 cu. ft., but soon realized that that wasn't enough, so we went back and got 60 cu. ft. more, for a total of 140 cu. ft. Our balloon should be filled to around 115 cu. ft., so we should have plenty.

We also realized that the 4 ft. parachute that we bought from Rocketman Enterprises was too small. We ran tests with a weight comparable to our capsule by dropping it off large buildings and filming it on the way down, and decided that it fell too fast, so we ordered the 5 ft parachute and sent back the old one. We ran tests with the new parachute, and it descended in a much more controlled manner.

It's the night before the launch, and we are excited for tomorrow morning. We are hoping to launch around 9 or 10 a.m., and if all goes according to the predictor, it should end up in Napa or Santa Rosa.

The balloon should rise at a rate of around 15 ft/sec, and will pop around 95,000-100,000 ft. The descent rate should be around 14 ft/sec, and the whole flight will last around 3 hours. We are hoping that our cameras will survive the whole flight, as the cold temperatures will significantly affect their battery life, but they will at least last the flight up, and if they do stop recording, it will be during the descent.

Tomorrow will be the fruition of several months' efforts, and we are hoping that those months will pay off. If all goes according to plan, the next update will be of the recovered flight footage. Stay tuned!