APM2 Flies to 100k Ft.for 7 1/2 hours 300 miles !
On 4/14/12 we flew an APM2 ardupilot in a balloon to over 100000 feet for 7 1/2 hour 300 mile + flight !
The flight originated near Albuquerque NM and landed near Trinchera ,CO. The flight was over 300 miles and lasted far longer than we planned. The flight was so long the 5 on board cameras ran out of memory and battery before the flight ended.
The chase crew went 225 miles before giving up because there was no data from the Digi M10 Satellite modem. The crew was almost back into Albuquerque when all of the sudden three phones got e-mails from the Digie modem at the same time.
ET CALLED HOME !!!
It gave us the Lat, long, and altitude of where it was. Several emails later we realized the package landed. We quickly put the coordinates into google maps and could not believe where it was ! It was in Colorado! And it landed 7 1/2 hours after launch !
I will download the data from the APM2 SD card and see the flight.
Here are some pictures.
Could have landed here in Colorado
But it landed 10 miles further 50 feet from the edge of a farm road !
Some of the equipment flown...
I will post more pics and some videos later when I get back to Albuquerque. My car motor seized up out in the boonies right after retrieving the package. Got to get rental car and find way to get new motor in 2006 Saturn Vue.
Earl
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Comment by Earl on April 17, 2012 at 7:45pm -
I may go with openlog. Record all data from telemetry port. 16GB ought to record a lot of data.
Earl
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Comment by Earl on April 17, 2012 at 10:11pm
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Well, after analyzing all the data, from the APM2 (15 mins worth), 3 video cams (30-40 mins), and knowing the launch time and coordinates, And when the Orbicom satellite said it landed (about 7.5 hours of flight time) The distance traveled was about 300 miles.The max speed from data was 89 mph at 18,300 ft.
We can only estimate the height achieved (60,000 ???).
It did go a long way and a long distance ! Next flight we will have better telemetry and more data recorded.
Earl
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Comment by Earl on April 18, 2012 at 6:48am
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GPS was APM2. The other package used Orbicom so I think that GPS worked abobe 18000 meters.
I got a call and the other 2 cameras and xbee and bec are found. Will be mailed to me today.
Earl
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 18, 2012 at 1:54pm -
So the GPS made it above 60k without any mods?
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Comment by Mike on April 18, 2012 at 3:05pm -
Interested . . . what's the connection with this University of New Mexico (Cosmiac) project and nanosatellites if any, or put another way - what was the overall purpose of this flight?
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Comment by Mike on April 18, 2012 at 3:10pm
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I second starting a Arduloon project here.
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Comment by Earl on April 18, 2012 at 5:44pm
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The Cosmiac LLC is funded by NASA to get university students interested in near edge of space. At Cosmiac we find rides for cubesats we developed for industry or other LEO mini sats. I work for Cosmiac as well as go to UNM full time to get my astrophysics degree. I am only 66 years young!
The next flight will be in 3-4 weeks. We wll fly APRS tx that is 10 watts on 144.39 mhz. You will be able to track the balloon in real time on the internet !
More details as we develop them.
The APRS system has a high altitude GPS unit on it also.
Earl
PS the data from the orbicom memory card is being downloaded as we type.
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Comment by Earl on April 18, 2012 at 10:31pm
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Rats again...there was no data of any use on the orbicom satellite data card. We are still waiting on the hi res video data on 16gb card. should be several hours of data. it was mailed to me today.
Earl
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Comment by Earl on April 19, 2012 at 9:35am
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Here is the graph of HUD altitude and GPS altitude. Why the difference ?
Earl
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 19, 2012 at 11:29am -
10 watts! APRS I flew to 30k in a manned balloon and used 500mw and we were heard more than 500km away. You will be heard across America with 10 watts!
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