Flight #2005-1 "Balloonsat POC"

Launch Date: September 10, 2005



Update: September 11, 2005

Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:48:48 -0500 (CDT)
From: John C Nordlie 
To: balloons@space.edu
Subject: Sept. 10 balloon flight update

Greetings.

Well, I'm back in GF.  The balloon launch on saturday, Sept. 10
went smoothly, the flight somewhat problematic, and the recovery not
so good at all.  To cut to the chase, it seems there was a problem
with the APRS system, either related to the eTrex GPS receiver, the
TinyTrak III itself, or the cables.  We don't know at this point
because we were unable to find the payload after it landed.

Some reports indicate trouble with the GPS early in the
ascent, while others claim it worked fine all the way until about
50K feet in the decent.  In any case, the position stopped updating
at that point, repeating that last position for about 6 more minutes,
then the signal was lost entirely.  Despite hours of searching, no
further signals were heard from the payload.

Ryan and Mike and I returned to Ryan's place, where we (meaning
Ryan and Mike) fine-tuned a decent profile for the package, and ran
simulations via balloontrak to get a possible projected landing site.
With this in hand Mike and I returned to the field this morning and
searched in vain for a signal, chasing some digipeaters and other
signals before giving up.

Ryan said he and his brother would so some searching tomorrow
(monday) along the projected flight path.  The projected landing site
is north east of Harvey, ND.  The payload consists of our standard
tracking and control package (pink foam box about the size of a small
soda cooler), yellow and red parachute, a train of about 6 student
cubesats (cubes about 8" on a side, covered with silver mylar), and
the usual cardboard and aluminum foil radar reflector.  The GPS
batteries are dead by now, but it's possible the main flight pack
may last another 24 hours or so.  Beyond that, it's a visual recovery,
or a farmer or hunter may stumble across it.  The student payloads are
labeled with contact information, so we may yet luck out.  At this
writing however, the payload remains unrecovered.
This flight will launch from a farm north of Bismarck ND (south of Wilton, ND) at 9:00 am, central time. The flight should last about 2 hours.

We'll be using a totex balloon, 2000g. APRS frequency 144.390 MHz, track should be available at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=kc0lmo-11.

We'll be carrying some other payloads designed and built by teachers with cameras and data loggers on board.

The Balloon Group will work with the Space Studies Department to launch some balloonsat payloads, developed by North Dakota teachers. This flight will be launched north of Bismarck, ND. The main goal is to provide proof of concept for a future workshop put on by the Space Studies Department.

Update: October 12, 2005
It's been just over a month since launch of the balloonsat POC payload. Despite visual searches from light aircraft over the predicted flight path, no trace of the payload has been found. It is hunting and harvest season, so there is a chance someone will stumble upon the packages and return them, but at this point the payload is considered lost. All part of ballooning, but dissapointing none the less.

Update: June 6, 2006
Part of the payload has been found! A farmer near Denhoff ND found some of the student payloads stuck in his air-seeder. He delivered them to one of our group members in Bismarck. Here's his report: 

just picked up the remains, not quite as promising as I had hoped.
None of the main package or parachute was present.  There are 3
cameras and associated circuit boards in fairly good condition.
(cameras are in very good condition, some of the timer circuit boards
are broken.)  There is also at least 1 hobo data logger.  One entire
cube is still in almost flight ready condition, the rest look like
they may have gotten run over.

I don't know if it is possible to actually figure out who the various
bits belong to, so if you want me to strip it down and mail it to you
Suezette I can...  (I'll take some pics tonight)


Ryan


Apparently the farmer thought the packages looked suspicious, but then noticed an American flag on one of the boxes and decided to investigate further. The contact info was still intact on one box, so he made the call. Images of the recovered payloads are available here.

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