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Table of Contents
Launch 3
This page tracks Launch 3, planning in progress, a foil balloon launch.
Bill of Materials
Tracker
Just the one: HABTRK
Power
Single Energiser Lithium AA or AAA
- AA - 3,000 mah, 15g
- AAA - 1,250 mah, 8g
Going to use a single AA for my first flight - the voltage drop from a AAA whilst the GPS is getting a fix is quite high and the boost converter I am using fails to maintain the voltage required to the GPS and it resets after a couple of hours in the freezer.
Balloon
36” Qualatex silver “foil” balloon
Approximate weight of 37g, approximate internal volume of 0.1cu m before envelope stretching.
This means they can lift payloads of approx. 60g (or slightly more if you allow for stretching). However experimenters typically aim for payloads of the order of 20 - 40g per balloon in order to attempt to make them float.
Enclosure
ToDo
Helium
Weight
Tracker including aerial - 13.8g
Battery including lead ~ 17
Insulation ~ 7
Total = 38g
Predictor
Looking through the data here: http://ukhas.org.uk/projects:microballoons:data?s[]=foil
and modifying the predictor from here: http://ukhas.org.uk/_media/guides:burst3.xls
with a balloon weight of 37g, a burst diameter of about 0.70m is the best estimate I could make for a 'if it bursts' flight path with a Descent rate of 5m/s.
Launch Announcement
A single tracker foil launch, from a site near Wellingborough (Northants)
Primary tracker: RFM22B based, $$HABTRK, 434.150Mhz (434138400 on my rx), USB, RTTY, 470Hz Shift, ASCII-7, 50 Baud, Parity none, 1 Stop bit
$$HABTRK, id, time, lat, lon, alt, sats, vinmv, rfm_temp.
Documentation is here: http://ukhas.org.uk/projects:jimbob:launch3
Track it here: http://spacenear.us/tracker/ or http://habitat.habhub.org/mobile-tracker/
Predictor based on Marston launch here: http://predict.habhub.org/hourly/marston/ or anywhere http://habhub.org/predict/ or http://weather.uwyo.edu/polar/balloon_traj.html
Burst predictors are linked from here: http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:balloon_data