Flight #2002-2 "Mercury 2"
Launch Date: Tuesday, September 10
Success!! Here's a report of the flight from Ryan:
Just a quick summary for anyone that may not have heard. After a
somewhat delayed launch at around 5:45, it turn out to be a GREAT
mission for the mercury sampling project. (pending the results, of
course) The balloon drifted along nice and slow, nearly stopping at
some points, and following the predicted path. The lift rate was much
slower, and our max altitude for a 90 minute mission was around 60,000
ft. Recovery was on a gravel road close to Ada, MN, lead by Mike G with
myself, John, and Charlie in close persuit. Tricia was the actual
person to find the package, after looking in front of our parking
location 20 feet and 5 feet off the road. We are really getting good at
this, able to land the balloon in such an easy to find location,
considering we had to 'land' it 10 feet from power lines! The total
time the package was on the ground before recovery was less than 10 minutes.
Thanks to everyone that participated to make this a successful launch!
Ryan
This mission will fly a mercury sampler and APRS. Our previous mercury mission returned
samples in the same order of magnitude as the control, which is lower than prefered by
the investigators. This mission will have redesigned traps which should allow greater
flow. We'll also shoot for a lower rise-rate by putting less helium in the balloon.
Return to the UND HABP webpage.