Homemade Spacecraft

[jimglenn]

Hope the amateur balloons work better than the nasa ones. :evil:

A giant NASA science balloon decked out with a telescope painstakingly constructed to scan the sky at wavelengths invisible to the naked eye crashed in the Australian outback today. The result? The experiment was destroyed, in fact, it just missed nearby spectators and took out a car.

In the dramatic video footage below released by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the balloon begins to lift its payload, then something goes wrong and the telescope smashes through a fence and overturns a nearby parked SUV before finally stopping.

http://www.blippitt.com/failure-to-laun ... alia-video

 

[adrenalynn]

Excrement occurs. NASA doesn't have a lock on space - and they also don't have a lock on catastrophic failures to get there.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

"Make" is an awesome mag. Though, I've only seen online versions. I've always been interested in a DIY dry submarine, myself. Though, if I ever crack this whole "gravity" thing wide open, I'll shoot for another barely explored medium.

 

[adrenalynn]

I was just working on our new primary GPS module, and broke one of the incredibly tiny traces (the whole unit is about the size of a quarter, including backup datalogging. It also has new custom firmware to beat the stupid federal regulations regarding altitude and speed limitations.). Now I have to greenwire it. [sigh] Sending a phone to near-space is one thing - carrying a meaningful payload up, doing something awesome, and bringing it home is quite another. I feel for NASA losing their toy - but this stuff is hard, like rocket-science hard.

The way I look at that experience is as a 'wow, nice job' to their safety team. Even in a horrible catastrophic failure, no one was hurt.

 

[EarthlingX]

I think they were a bit lucky with that balloon, but otherwise, watching NASA missions, they give impression to have procedures for just about everything including ETs flying by during their missions. They just turn a page and go on - no sweat.

What you are doing is just as exciting, because it shows something which is much more reachable than doing mission for NASA. People like you made MAKE do that issue, you are among those who are opening space for everyone. Good luck and please keep us posted

 

[JasonChapman]

This is ultra cool on so many levels, the main one being that space no longer belongs to some ailing multi billion dollar budget organisation, who's only skill these days is creating fancial black holes rather than studying the real ones.

God's speed to anyone who makes I hope they start something like that over here in the UK

 

[adrenalynn]

Earthling - thanks! We have our own procedures manual and flight/mission checklist that grows every day. It's a critical piece. I got the new GPS running in the wee-hours this morning, which is a big step forward in our entirely new avionics package. The radio modem plugs into a PC on the ground, and makes a transparent link to the one in the capsule (as far as the PC is concerned), and that makes a transparent serial link to the microcontroller in our avionics systems. A device driver on the ground station makes the translation on the fly, so our little GPS in near-space looks to any mapping software exactly as if it were plugged into the PC. It's pretty cool.

Jason - at its simplest, it's not that tough! Search your laws for "unmanned balloons" and see what the regulations are. You'll likely have to jump through a bunch of legal hoops during your flight, but they're not insurmountable (here anyway). Then just go do it. If you keep your payload down, you can get up there and take photos for < $500 USD. We have much bigger plans for it, so we're about 4x that for SBO-3, our redesign. Don't wait for someone else to "start it" - just go _do it_ ! You know you wanna. All the cool kids are starting their own space programs! :geek: :lol:

[some info redacted from image to protect privacy]

 

[brandbll]

Earthling - thanks! We have our own procedures manual and flight/mission checklist that grows every day. It's a critical piece. I got the new GPS running in the wee-hours this morning, which is a big step forward in our entirely new avionics package. The radio modem plugs into a PC on the ground, and makes a transparent link to the one in the capsule (as far as the PC is concerned), and that makes a transparent serial link to the microcontroller in our avionics systems. A device driver on the ground station makes the translation on the fly, so our little GPS in near-space looks to any mapping software exactly as if it were plugged into the PC. It's pretty cool.

Jason - at its simplest, it's not that tough! Search your laws for "unmanned balloons" and see what the regulations are. You'll likely have to jump through a bunch of legal hoops during your flight, but they're not insurmountable (here anyway). Then just go do it. If you keep your payload down, you can get up there and take photos for < $500 USD. We have much bigger plans for it, so we're about 4x that for SBO-3, our redesign. Don't wait for someone else to "start it" - just go _do it_ ! You know you wanna. All the cool kids are starting their own space programs! :geek: :lol:

[some info redacted from image to protect privacy]

Ahhh, now that i know the spacecraft's coordinates i will be forced to intercept your recovery and will be ransoming it back to you. I want one million dollars in unmarked bills or as an Amzon.com gift card. If i don't get the cash or gift card within 2 hours of my interception i will attach your equipment minus GPS to a new balloon and release it back into the atmosphere where it will most likely float all the way to Europe. :twisted:

 

[adrenalynn]

DAM' YOU! :evil:

In this case, if I'd left the full coordinates in there, I was a bit concerned someone might attach a balloon to my house and I'd be drifting to Europe when I woke up this morning.

Errr - wait. Let me repost that with the full coordinates... :lol:

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

... for SBO-3, our redesign.

Cool stuff ! Are you doing this as a hobby or ?? What instrumentation are you going to fly ?

 

[adrenalynn]

I've gotten that question frequently (the second one), so time to address it:

http://www.spaceballoon.org/blog/?p=5

That's a work in progress. Doesn't include the science payload yet, or the flight system, or the ground control system, or the recovery system. Stay tuned! You can follow us @spaceballoonorg on twitter if you like. We're still trying to spend the time to get all the website stuff online.

It's a hobby - although we'll be announcing our science outreach program for elementary and middle schools soon. It's a no-charge program where we'll take proposals for experiments from science classes/students, and select the most promising, then assist them in engineering/machining/whatever is necessary to get their science payload ready to fly. Then it'll fly as a secondary payload, weight-budget allowing, in its own a sub-capsule further down the flight string. Standard capsule package for the outreach program will include as standard 960p/60 micro-HD camera w/16GB, redundant 6Ah/11.1vDC power busses, 3.3/5/12vDC 10A regulated power, 2GB data logger, and another dedicated ATMega328 microcontroller for A2D, DIO, PWM.

 

[adrenalynn]

Bumping for Mee and Mac!

I've gotten that question frequently (the second one), so time to address it:

http://www.spaceballoon.org/blog/?p=5

That's a work in progress. Doesn't include the science payload yet, or the flight system, or the ground control system, or the recovery system. Stay tuned! You can follow us @spaceballoonorg on twitter if you like. We're still trying to spend the time to get all the website stuff online.

It's a hobby - although we'll be announcing our science outreach program for elementary and middle schools soon. It's a no-charge program where we'll take proposals for experiments from science classes/students, and select the most promising, then assist them in engineering/machining/whatever is necessary to get their science payload ready to fly. Then it'll fly as a secondary payload, weight-budget allowing, in its own a sub-capsule further down the flight string. Standard capsule package for the outreach program will include as standard 960p/60 micro-HD camera w/16GB, redundant 6Ah/11.1vDC power busses, 3.3/5/12vDC 10A regulated power, 2GB data logger, and another dedicated ATMega328 microcontroller for A2D, DIO, PWM.

 

[spaceballoon]

We tested the GPS to microcontroller package the other night in a drive from 958XX to 946XX. 95.7 miles in 2 hours 20 minutes. Delorme Topo 8.0 recorded 5743 data points.

We expect greater accuracy during capsule flight as the GPS is tuned for high altitude data acquisition.

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

Bumping for Mee and Mac!

Thanks ! You're lifting quite a bit of kit aren't you. Geiger counter and atmospheric composition packages are intriguing.

 

[adrenalynn]

btw - "spaceballoon" the user isn't me. And if the blog sounds like it's more than one person, it's because it is.

Yeah, we're sending up a pretty good handful next time. The majority of the weight is still batteries. Something ya just can't escape.

 

[andrew_t1000]

Check out

http://projecthorus.org/

I'm waiting for today's launch right now!

 

[andrew_t1000]

Yesterdays flight of Horus 9 was great!

I was watching online and talking to some of the team members on IRC.
Maximum height was over 34km!
The payload travelled over 200km and radio repeater system was able to recieve traffic from as far away as Melbourne!

I'm going to whip my friends/cohorts into doing a near space flight!
It must be done!

Way too cool not to!

 

[orionrider]

Excellent, thanks!