Send Your Own Radiosonde 90,000 Feet Into the Sky (Video)

Radiosonde, weather balloon, near-space exploration package... call it what you will, but today's interviewee, Jamel Tayeb, is hanging instrument packages and cameras below balloons and sending them up to 97,000 feet (his highest so far), then recovering them 50 or 60 miles away from their liftoff points with help from a locator beacon -- and not just any locator beacon, mind you, but a special one from a company called High Altitude Science with "unlocked" firmware that allows it to work with GPS satellites from altitudes greater than 60,000 feet, which typical, off-the-shelf GPS units can't do.

Here's a balloon launch video from Instructure, a company that helps create open source education systems. The point of their balloon work (and Jamel's) is not that they get to boast about what they're doing, but so you and people like you say, "I can make a functioning high altitude weather balloon system with instrumentation and a decent camera for only $1000?" This is a lot of money for an individual, but for a high school science program it's not an impossible amount. And who knows? You might break the current high-altitude balloon record of 173,900 feet. Another, perhaps more attainable record is PARIS (Paper Aircraft Released Into Space) which is currently 96,563 feet. Beyond that? Perhaps you'll want to take a crack at beating Felix Baumgartner's high altitude skydiving and free fall records. And once you are comfortable working with near space launches, perhaps you'll move on to outer space work, where you'll join Elon Musk and other space transportation entrepreneurs. (Alternate Video Link)

Comments

Ion Thruster

[emil]

Can a balloon get an object high enough that an electrostatic ion thruster can take it out of orbit?

Re:Ion Thruster

[Jarik C-Bol]

I doubt it. A balloon filled with a lifting gas will eventually reach an altitude where the atmosphere density outside the balloon is equal to the density of the lifting gas inside, and halt is rise. Think of a balloon full of air underwater, rises to the surface, then stops. In our case, the balloon is full of helium, and rises through a sea of mixed air until it reaches a point where helium would normally be floating on top of the atmosphere if it where not for solar wind stripping it off. (thats a little simplistic in describing where helium goes, but close enough for this situation) IIRC, Most balloons burst before this point, because the gas inside expands as the balloon rises and the pressure outside the balloon drops, and the balloon expands in volume until the material finally fails. Because there is little to no momentum across the globe, the balloon is never technically in orbit. and drops back down to earth. The only reason it does not land at point of launch is air currants, and the fact the earth rotates underneath it a little. The highest altitude balloon, as described in the summary, reached 173,900 feet (about 53 Kilometers) which is a little over 1/8th the distance to the ISS, which is in a rather low orbit because it had to be serviced by the space shuttle. Now, if you could somehow invent a balloon with infinite structural integrity, which would not burst, I *think* you could get a balloon out as far as 100 Kilometers, but at this stage, i'm completely guessing based on quick perusals of some atmosphere data online. At any rate, even at those altitudes, you would still be far to low to fall into an orbit without significant lateral acceleration, which means you are coming back down, that day. Seeing as electrostatic drives take weeks to produce any meaningful degree of acceleration, I don't see how you could reach escape velocity using a balloon and electrostatic drive.

Launch is easy... recovery is the hard part

[jvschwarz]

Having been involved with two high-altitude (90,000 ft+) balloon launches, getting off the ground is the easy part. Getting the payload back is more difficult. One landed in Lake Michigan and was recovered, the other landed in a marsh and after 6 hours of searching, we still haven't recovered it. (Very difficult terrain to get through).

Getting into near space can be done for less than $1,000 pretty easily. It's a great educational experience, and loads of fun. Hopefully our next launch will land in a open grassy field.