Wednesday, January 25, 2012

NSP Flight 4: Unprecedented and Unpredictable

NSP in its fourth flight reached an incredible and unexpected altitude of 145,462ft AGL or 146,962ft ASL this past Monday the 23rd of January! For this launch we used an 800g weather balloon spec'd for roughly 92,000ft and maintained all other aspects of the payload according to Flight 3.

Flight/Trajectory predictions for this launch were calculated based on a maximum altitude of 100,000ft which itself was quite optimistic. Ascent rate data from the flight computer suggests that the balloon was significantly under-inflated. Flight 3 achieved an average ascent rate of 1245 ft/min to apogee of ~75kft, whereas Flight 4 averaged 1033 ft/min up to 75kft. The large error in the predicted apogee can be attributed to the extra volume given for expansion.

Touchdown occurred at T+2.5 hours in an abandoned oil field near Taft, CA about 84 miles downrange of the launch site. Photos after the jump..



Photo highlights below. Click photos to see full resolution photo.

Video to come soon.

Flight Sequence.1.Rainbow

Flight Sequence.2.Emerging

Flight Sequence.3.Central Valley

Flight Sequence.4.40kft

Flight Sequence.5.60k

Flight Sequence.6.80k

Flight Sequence.7.100k

Flight Sequence.8.145k

Flight Sequence.9.Burst

Flight Sequence.10.Wrong Way

Flight Sequence.11.Balloon Remnants

Flight Sequence.12.Balloon Remnants 2

Flight Sequence.13.Landing Sight in View

Ground path
Posted by Near Space Photographer (NSP) at 10:23 PM
Location: Fresno, CA, USA

2 comments:

  1. NunoMay 26, 2012 at 5:36 PM

    What about air traffic?
    Did you have to ask for any clearance or permission before launching the balloon?

    Nice job, keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Near Space Photographer (NSP)June 18, 2012 at 11:37 PM

      Hi Nuno!

      Thanks for the great question! This is perhaps the biggest concern for anyone launching an "unmanned balloon" i.e. weather balloon. You should be aware of the Federal Regulations for unmanned balloons which you can find by searching for "FAR regulations for unmanned balloons" you should find FAR part 101. There are particular instructions for notifying FAA ATC while the balloon is in a flight envelope up to 60kft. I hope this answers your question! Thanks for visiting!

      Jeff Wilschke

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)