TR: Pictures from 97,000 Feet

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a high altitude balloon launch in northern Nevada. The 3000 gram helium filled balloon carried about 6 payloads to an elevation of 97,000 ft. A parachute carried the payloads back to earth.

My got up at 2:30am, and drove to the west shore of pyramid lake.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&h...1499&z=10&om=1

Map shows launch and retrieval loactions

The payload that I and another student built was a foam core box that housed a digital camera (took pictures every minute), a temperature logger that recorded internal and external temperatures, a GPS receiver, barometer, resistor heater powered by 8 AA. The heater is necessary as it gets very cold (sub zero) at these high elevations, and the batteries will shut down on the instruments.

These pictures were from one of the other payloads, (Prof. Eric Wang's Payload i believe). My pictures from my payload are not yet available, but when I get them, I will update the thread.
His setup was a Canon Xti with a 10-20mm Sigma set at 10mm. The shutter was triggered by a timer. The frequency of the timer could be controlled by radio.


Sorry Guys, I should not have posted the pictures so soon. Maybe later. I was a little too excited to share my experience with you all

P1
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p154927378-4.jpg
Picture taken from Eric's payload. The white box in bottom of frame is my payload.

P2
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p306144516-4.jpg
Just getting off the ground

P3
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p12436934-4.jpg
Pyramid to the left

P4
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p257860460-4.jpg
Looking west

P5
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p392195039-4.jpg
Our chase vehicles are visible on the dirt road in the bottom left corner

P6
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p344520302-4.jpg
The Needles visible in bottom of pic

P7
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p430340897-4.jpg
Pyramid from the North East.

P8
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p740929285-4.jpg
From up High

P9
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p905968715-4.jpg
From even Higher...The Earth is round!!!;)

P10
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p557602883-4.jpg
Another Pyramid Shot

P11
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p919590190-4.jpg
Taken after balloon burst. Notice the balloon shreads.

P12
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p884257729-4.jpg
Burning man location from the air. Landing spot was north east of BM on a mountain side.

P13
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p640272366-4.jpg
Close to impact

P14
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p989132259-4.jpg
After landing, looks like it was tumbling down the hill. The payloads looked beat up when we found them.

P15
http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p729682427-4.jpg
A picture of me (my payload is also visible, and intact!) taken from Eric's payload at the landing site.

Lots more pictures to add once I get them.

it is absolutely fucking amazing the wide range of stuff people on this forum get into. Great stuff!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SkiEvil

it is absolutely fucking amazing the wide range of stuff people on this forum get into. Great stuff!

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It really is. I'd like to see what the whole balloon setup looked like and how big it is. Those pictures from way up are pretty cool to see.

thanks for posting that up. VERY COOL. Had to grab the g/f to show her the pics that were taken.

Those pics are amazing!

that's so cool.

i'd also like to see pics of the balloon setup, if ya got 'em.

I looked at the pictures before reading the text - I thought you were ON the balloon...jesus...

Yowsa. That is far out.

A few pictures for people interested in the balloon, and setup.

As soon as we got to the location, we put a couple tarps down on the ground and spread the balloon (latex material I think) out on the ground.

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p56185313.jpg
Damn it was early in the morning!

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p166301515-4.jpg

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p20166518-4.jpg
Hooking up the gas.

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p262434297-4.jpg
Watching in Awe

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p304364864-4.jpg
Getting the payloads ready

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p122480010-4.jpg
Payloads were strung out along the ground.

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p274625083-5.jpg
Walking the balloon and payloads up.

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p394187113-5.jpg
Making last minute adjustments

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p14147632-5.jpg
The release.

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p465750394-4.jpg
The landing spot and debris.

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p378465633-4.jpg
Dr. Wang's camera took a pretty hard hit. Lens hoods and filters are good!

All the pics I have for now.

This is the coolest fucking non-human-piloted thing I have ever seen. Those pics are awesome. Props on using a decent lens, cuz the pics are sharp.

Do you need any kind of FAA clearance to get through Class A airspace with a balloon?

Does the chute deploy with a baro switch or something?

Where does a guy get a weather balloon, anyway?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bio-smear

Where does a guy get a weather balloon, anyway?

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D'uh, you "borrow" 'em from the weather institute, or from the army or what ever...

The army was where I got mine (a tad smaller though, only about 1.5m in diameter at sealevel).

Science is fucking cool. Those shots are awesome.

Thanks for sharing! Those are really cool shots

awesome...

What was your accent rate?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bio-smear

This is the coolest fucking non-human-piloted thing I have ever seen. Those pics are awesome. Props on using a decent lens, cuz the pics are sharp.

Do you need any kind of FAA clearance to get through Class A airspace with a balloon?

Does the chute deploy with a baro switch or something?

Where does a guy get a weather balloon, anyway?

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With Eric's DSLR on board, I think that it was a little risky, but definitely worth it.

My payload had a small point and shoot Nikon that I borrowed:biggrin: . It will be interesting to compare the quality between the two once I the the pictures from it.

As far as the FAA goes, I don't know the details. I do know that we contacted them that morning, and told them about the launch. I don't know whether they granted us permission, or if they just took note of it.

The balloon continues to expand as it climbs untill it reaches a diameter of about 45 Feet. That is when it bursts, and the parachute takes over. The goal was to get it to 110,000 Ft, but I think that too much helium was put in it, causing it to burst at 97K.

Looks like you can buy them here, but they are pretty spendy for a one time use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonesy

What was your accent rate?

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Accent rate was about 1,000Ft/Minute. Decent from up at the highest point was about 20,000Ft/Min (I think) due to very little air resistance.


http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p919590190-4.jpg

Assuming that this picture was not taken immediately after bursting (I will have to compare times later) It shows that objects of different mass fall at the same rate when there is little air resistance. Clearly, the payloads were far more massive than the balloon shards, but they appear to fall at the same rate. Very cool!:yourock:

Very cool indeed. I did R&D in AK specializing in Aviation and Ballistics/Upper Winds Aloft. Pyramid Lake has alot of strange stories about turning over,ect. Thanks for the excellent pictures.

Very cool TR.
it's amazing you can drop a camera from the edge of space and have it turn out OK.

I guess your camera wins the "Who's been the highest" threads.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonesy

Very cool indeed. I did R&D in AK specializing in Aviation and Ballistics/Upper Winds Aloft. Pyramid Lake has alot of strange stories about turning over,ect. Thanks for the excellent pictures.

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It was very interesting to note the wind changes at different altitudes. Every 30 seconds, we were getting a lat/long and altitude reading from the balloon, and we could get an idea of what the winds were doing.

About Pyramid's turnover. That is the cycle of water from the bottom of the lake to the top right? Does that have anything to do with atmospheric activity?

Glad you all are enjoying the TR. I can not describe how much fun it was, though at times sketchy. In particular, the near supersonic speeds we reached on dirt roads during the chase:eek:.

About Pyramid's turnover. That is the cycle of water from the bottom of the lake to the top right? Does that have anything to do with atmospheric activity?

What I heard was the Lake was connected to "outside" bodies of water and when it turned over non-native fish would appear. I doubt there is any connection with atmospheric activity or fact.:rolleyes2
Our instruments would usually blow apart at 300 mph in the innner core of the Jet Stream.

Cool TR, I really like this shot:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Junker

http://gabe.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p122480010-4.jpg
Payloads were strung out along the ground.

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Very cool.

Awesome pics, cool TR, again its great to see some of the things people on these forums are into. Thanks!

I love that debris photo. Highly awesome stuff.

Awesome! From the sound of it this was a student project? For what department?

awww, I missed the balloon photos, I'm anxiously going to return to check on them when they are up again.

I helped some friends inflate a tethered weather balloon at Burning Man in some good wind. It was fun watching it deform in the wind. The guy bought it off Ebay for $25 and got a helium tank for $100. The parachute mechanism would be the interesting part of the setup. And did you have a tracking device? You were able to see the parachute and chase it, but how did you guarantee finding it again.

Pics goners?! :(