FLIGHT
ONBOARD CAMERA
A single camera was carried, a Canon SD1100. The internal battery was replaced with a coupler, and an external battery wired in its place. The internal storage media was a 2GB SD card.
The latest stable CHDK firmware load was installed on the SD card, and the camera set to autoboot from the SD card. An intervalometer script was used, with the picture-to-picture interval set at 20 seconds. The script would continue taking pictures until the power failed, or the SD card was filled.
The camera was activated minutes before launch, and installed in the spacecraft. It faithfully took pictures throughout the flight, and on into the landing. The first photo was taken at 1:30PM, 8 min prior to launch. The last photo taken, in the trees, prior to the SD card being completely filled, was at 4:24PM, just minutes before the chase team arrived on-scene.
Many of the photos were unusable for various reasons, primarily the long journey up and down a thick cloud deck. From the usable photos, a small deck of highlights are provided below, in chronological order, arranged by ground, ascent, at altitude, descent, and landing. (The shots from near-space are in the 'altitude' section.)
The latest stable CHDK firmware load was installed on the SD card, and the camera set to autoboot from the SD card. An intervalometer script was used, with the picture-to-picture interval set at 20 seconds. The script would continue taking pictures until the power failed, or the SD card was filled.
The camera was activated minutes before launch, and installed in the spacecraft. It faithfully took pictures throughout the flight, and on into the landing. The first photo was taken at 1:30PM, 8 min prior to launch. The last photo taken, in the trees, prior to the SD card being completely filled, was at 4:24PM, just minutes before the chase team arrived on-scene.
Many of the photos were unusable for various reasons, primarily the long journey up and down a thick cloud deck. From the usable photos, a small deck of highlights are provided below, in chronological order, arranged by ground, ascent, at altitude, descent, and landing. (The shots from near-space are in the 'altitude' section.)
ground
The camera's-eye view as launch preparation advances, and the balloon is walked out.
ascent
Only a few shots of the ground, as the cloud deck was very low, and thick. Breaking out of the lower cloud deck, there was an extended upper deck, much thinner. Note the jet contrails in some photos. (The orange halo in many images is a corner of the orange nylon outer jacket on the spacecraft.)
at altitude
It is likely that the rigging slipped, and the spacecraft was oriented at an angle, as well as rotating slowly. This helped produce some nice shots. These shots are what make it all worthwhile! The second shot shows a very high-altitude haze: at first, it was thought this was the camera lens, but it does appear to be real.
descent
The first shot has the remnants of the balloon - the knotted neck and line - falling alongside the spacecraft. All too quickly, the spacecraft descended into the lower cloud deck and a stormy New England winter day.
landing
The spacecraft hit a stand of tall pine not more than 10 m from an open field. There it dangled, slowly rotating and taking pictures until the memory card filled. The very last photo, as dusk approached, showed that open field with a large group of wild turkeys.
Email the team if you need individual photos in their original format.
APRS RADIO SYSTEM
The raw packets carried on the APRS network are provided here, both as a PDF file, and a Word document.
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ACCUTRACKING CELLPHONE
The GPS data downloaded from the accutracking service is provided here, as an Excel document.
exported_accutracking_data.xls | |
File Size: | 18 kb |
File Type: | xls |