myscience high altitude balloon project

Myscience High Altitude Balloon

Project

What we hoped to achieve

Put a payload together that contained a camera and some electronics such as GPS and a radio so we could track the balloon

Launch it

Take some pictures from 30,000 metres or more above the ground and capture data such as ascent and descent speed, speed over ground and temperature.

Find it again

What we hoped to get

Planned Outcomes

Picture of our Tracker BoardTalks to satellites, works out where it is.

Takes all the information from the temp sensors and GPS and turns it into a “string”

Takes info from Arduino and radios down to ground

Additional Payload items

SD card loaded with CHDK

Other items we needed to think about

Braided string – twined string unravels during the flight and can weaken / break or spin the payload.

Balloon size – need the correct amount of lift to do the perfect “launch, burst, descend, capture” over about 3 hours.

Parachute – On the day we achieved a perfect 4 m/s descent rate using a 3ft parachute. Fast enough to not drift off into the sea, slow enough to not damage anyone / thing.

Helium – Need enough to slightly overfill the balloon. Need to avoid the balloon “floating” or taking a long time to ascend

Lithium batteries - these last longer for the flight, they also don’t explode at extreme temperatures / altitudes!

Launch Day Lift Off Launch Time Lapse

GPS box, tracking website. Last reported location.

Predicted landing zone and last time it had radio signal

Recovery

Early Payload Photos

This is 23km up, at 38km the lens would have cleared and we’d have collected some stunning shots. Unfortunately the camera was recording RAW data so it filled up too early! Lesson learnt.

What we can improve Ensure that the camera is set to not record RAW images

Have two radios so we can track from York and the chase car