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--- projects:picoatlas:picoatlasiv [2011/08/26 21:38] – [Fill] jcoxon
+++ projects:picoatlas:picoatlasiv [2011/08/26 21:57] (current) – [Conclusion] jcoxon
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   * For launch we just too everything outside and released it.
 ===== Flight =====
+Once the balloon was released we went back to the barn to track. Early on we found that the signal strength wasn't as good as previous flights and there was fading with an oscillation of approximately 2 seconds. This made data collection challenging requiring us to rig a yagi on a pole to maximise our receive abilities.
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+To compensate for this poor signal strength it was necessary to collect all the partial strings and calculate and combine the data to get the flight profile. The ascent rate was a relatively stable 0.5m/s apart from an usual section where the acent rate increased and then held for a few minutes only to continue ascending. As we passed 6km altitude and were at the edge of our reception range we noticed that the balloon had begun to float - this was confirmed but the reconstruction of the partial strings.
 ===== Data =====
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 ===== Conclusion =====
+  * The setup was very easy - having a large indoors space to fill made getting the mass, lift and ascent rate much easier. This is vital for these foil balloons which small error margins.
+  * The data shows that we did manage float for about 10 mins before we lost radio contact - this is great news but we'll need a further flight with a sustained float to actually prove it.
+  * Low altitude flights are hard to track - its difficult to get the widespread listeners as you do need to be quite close or have a good setup. This wasn't helped this time by what was most likely an antenna problem on the payload.
+  * Often we could hear the RTTY but weren't able to decode the data - some morse in this situation might have helped.