HacDC Spaceblimp 5

Spaceblimp-5 Planned Launch: July 9, 2011

Summary

HacDC Spaceblimp 5 is set up for launch on Saturday morning 10:00 AM.

This time we're going for altitude. By using a larger balloon, hopefully it will burst at a higher altitude, 120k feet predicted.

The planned launch site is: Strausburg VA, in a open area near the town on Rt 11, near the I-81. Lat: 38.9968 N Lon: 78.3508W To get to the planned launch site, take I-66 west to I-81 South. At the first exit off of I-81, take Route 11 south. Watch on the left for a Food Lion within a mile or two, and look for us in the vacant parking lot just past the Food Lion.

Or follow along at home! There are two radios on board the blimp that transmit out the GPS data:

• The primary radio is tied to the GPS and transmits out to a network of amateur radio enthusiasts who then pass the location information on to get mapped here: APRS.fi. We also are running some custom software that passes this data on to a Twitter account (once per minute!) which you can follow on your phone: DC Spaceblimp Primary Twitter Feed. (Click the link in the Twitter to pull up a map!)

• The secondary radio is actually a GSM cell phone module, and will broadcast its data when in range of a cell tower. It will be broadcasting both GPS data for tracking, and a lot of the sensor data for science. You can follow that Twitter feed through Society Of Robots Twitter Feed.

Payload

The payload contains a couple cameras:

• a video camera (Canon Zi6)
• a still camera (Canon Powershot A-480) running custom firmware to get better exposures from space

and a lot of instrumentation:

• a geiger counter
• 9 degree-of-freedom IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit on Wikipedia)
• high-speed (50 sample/sec) accelerometer
• internal and external temperature sensors
• humidity sensor
• air pressure sensor
• IR and visible light sensors
• a solar panel, hooked up to measure the voltage

Launch Plans

Planned launch date:	Saturday, July 9, 2011
Launch time:	10:00 AM, Launch should take less than an hour.
Launch Location:	Strasburg, VA
Coordination/Talk-in:	146.685 MHz simplex (this might change, please monitor Twitter (@HacDCSpaceblimp) and mailing list for updates.
Planned Altitude:	120,000 Feet
Planned Ascent Rate:	1,000 feet/minute
Planned Descent Rate:	1,000 feet/minute
Primary Beacon:	Son-of-WhereAVR with ublox GPS. Yaesu VX-1 handi-talkie with 1 W Transmitter, call sign W3HAC-11 (map), Frequency 144.390 MHz
Secondary Beacon:	GSM mobile phone modue, uBlox GPS
Payload:	9 DOF IMU, Geiger counter, temperature, pressure, humidity, and light sensors

HacDC Spaceblimp Project:

Main Page	Press Page	First Launch (Found)	Second Launch (Successful)
Third Launch (Successful)	Fourth Launch (Successful)	Fifth Launch (3% short of goal)	Sixth Launch (Successful)	Seventh Launch (Successful)

HacDC Spaceblimp Team Contact Info:

[email protected]

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