[HSIS] Fwd: Maker 256 launch Weather forecast and Landing Prediction

Thu Apr 1 11:34:08 CDT 2010

Hey guys,

     Looks like we have a launch scrub into next week due to thunderstorms
and this Saturday's weather landing us in the backwoods of Tennessee.
Rescheduling launch to April 10th or 17th.  On April 10th, Bill Brown will
be launching a couple balloons with the UAH balloon launch team.  This would
be a good opportunity for us to learn how a balloon launch is done.  Also,
we may be able to do a test flight of our payload on one of the UAH balloons
if there is space available.  Otherwise, he will be opening up launch
opportunities on April 11th or April 17th from his farmhouse with our 800g
balloon.  Let me know what you think.

          - Ethan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <wb8elk at aol.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 1:09 AM
Subject: Maker 256 launch Weather forecast and Landing Prediction
To: spacefelix at gmail.com
Cc: brimstone at the.narro.ws, omegix at gmail.com, nayaksatyam at gmail.com

Ethan and all at Maker 256:

  Here's my analysis for this Saturday, April 3rd (I recommend postponing a
week until April 10th):

  The landing zone (map attached) is in a very rugged area of middle
Tennessee....odds of recovery can be low in this region.

  The current surface weather is now predicted for 40 percent chance of
Thunderstorms and potentially gusting winds for Saturday morning and early
afternoon....with 75 percent cloud cover.

  For an outside inflation, this kind of surface forecast is not a good
thing...also flying a camera payload with that much overcast and humidity
could fog up your camera lens.

  Added to the negatives is that most of my chase and recovery folks are
occupied or traveling for Easter weekend.

I recommend that you fly the following weekend either April 10th or April
11th.....on the 10th, we are flying 2 or 3 balloons from the back parking
lot of the NSSTC building on Lakeside Drive across from UAH campus. These
are student flights for the UAH BalloonSat senior engineering class. We will
have our launch team as well as a number of very experienced chase and
recovery folks in several vehicles there.

This is a great opportunity to see how we do the launch, tracking and
recovery and get pointers on how to track and chase before doing your own
flight. We usually have room in the chase vehicles to take some of you along
on the chase.

There is also the possibility that we can send up your payload on one of the
2 or 3 balloons we are flying if they have room...no guarantees...but if
they have room you'd get a free ride and just about guaranteed that you'll
get your experiment back with that many chase vehicles tracking these.

If they don't have room to fly your payload on that Saturday and you feel
like you'd like to take a shot at tracking after you've seen how it's done
with the UAH flights....then we could potentially do your balloon from my
farmhouse east of Hartselle on Sunday the 11th.

If you still opt to fly this Saturday, although I wouldn't recommend it...I
may be able to come out to give pointers...but probably won't risk my camera
and tracking equipment....I usually scrub a launch that is predicted to land
in that region of TN.

Once again...you all are welcome to attend the UAH flights a week from this
Saturday starting around 9 am April 10th behind the NSSTC building.

- Bill Brown
www.wb8elk.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ethan Chew <spacefelix at gmail.com>
To: wb8elk at aol.com
Cc: brimstone <brimstone at the.narro.ws>; Jeff Cotten <omegix at gmail.com>;
nayaksatyam at gmail.com
Sent: Tue, Mar 30, 2010 8:43 pm
Subject: Re: Maker 256 launch

Hello,

      The people working on our systems are as follows:

Brimstone - Matt (brimstone at the.narro.ws) - Is working on tracking via cell
phone and his laptop with GPS coordinates.
omegix - Jeff Cotten (omegix at gmail.com) - Has been coordinating with J&M
Cylinder in Hartselle for our helium on launch day.  He will be able to
provide the details for where to find us on launch day.
BendersGame - Satyam (nayaksatyam at gmail.com) - Is working on the camera.

In the meanwhile, our mailing list can be subscribed to at:
http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/hsis

Our project's wikipage is at:
https://256.makerslocal.org/wiki/index.php/HSIS

Thank-you for your recommendations!

                  - Ethan

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 4:07 PM, <wb8elk at aol.com> wrote:

> I can be at your proposed April 3rd launch as long as UAH is not
> flying...so far I think they are not, let me know when and where...my radio
> ground station and the barn where I often launch balloons is at my
> farmhouse on Wilson Mtn just east of Hartselle if you want to consider that
> as a launchsite....I'll bring my balloon GPS tracker and a very tiny 18 gram
> video camera that costs $59...it's the size of a small thumb drive...I flew
> it last weekend and it worked up to 33,000 feet with no insulation or
> external battery...will insulate this time with a small external battery
> pack. I did some still frame captures of the video and it looks quite
> acceptable. I'll send you some results of that tonight.
>
> The cellphone tracking is doomed to failure except for it's use as a backup
> recovery position report if you're lucky enough to be near to a cell tower
> and if the cellphone payload is not laying on the ground. The advice offered
> by the MIT students does not work well due to the very nature of the
> cellular telephony. I'll bring the GPS ham radio tracking equipment that
> I've designed...weighs about 10 ounces....same goes for many GPS
> receivers...most do NOT work above 60k feet....I use ones that do work there
> and there are only a few that work. I'll include a FindMeSpot GlobalStar
> tracker...it's main use is in backup landing site confirmation but it does
> plot the flight up to 60k feet every 10 to 20 minutes....it usually comes
> back to life when it parachute back below 60k.
>
>
> We flew an 8th grade science fair camera project last weekend with a $150
> Tachyon XC helmet cam....it did great...one of the photos can be
> viewed here:  www.nearspaceresearch.com
>
> Hand warmers are needless weight...they need oxygen to operate (so don't
> work in the stratosphere) and sometimes causes enough of a temperature
> differential to fog up the camera.
>
> I'll bring my balloon filling equipment and a parachute.
>
> Are you flying with helium or hydrogen?...makes a big difference in the
> regulator as I don't have a hydrogen regulator...you also have to use
> grounding precautions for hydrogen.
>
> I can run landing site predictions...I wrote the original Balloon Track
> prediction program that's now on the web at :  www.nearspaceventures.com
>
> There is a new camcorder the size of a keychain holder on eBay for $11
> (with shipping)....might be able to use that...when I get it in will test it
> on a flight in the next couple of weeks....we're doing multiple launches at
> UAH on April 10....you all are welcome to attend these.
>
>
> Let me know more particulars on when you want to fly this and payload
> weights you are considering flying.
>
> - Bill Brown
> 256-656-7189
>
>
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