Yet another high altitude balloon project: Swiss-HAB-1 at 21'300m

Inspired by the news about some HAB projects last year ("150$", iPhone4), I decided to start my own high altitude balloon project in November 2010. The goal was to take some HD video and 12MP images reaching around 30’000m resp. 100’000 feet. Finally it reached 21'300m. A real challenge was that Switzerland is a hard place for a capsule with parachute to land: Mountains, woods, streets, lakes and rivers everywhere! On the other hand: No rules for payload under 2.5Kg. No cut-off device. No radar reflector and no need to report the launch.

See the Blog here:http://swisshab.blogspot.com/

The capsule contained:

- Samsung HD Video camera with 32GB SD

- Pentax Optio 12MP Camera with 8GB SD

- No-name CAR 720p Video recorder with 16GB SD

- low-budget 720p Vid recorder with 4gb micro SD

- Sparkfun HAB-PCB with open log with 2GB micro SD and Venus GPS

- TK102 GPS/GSM tracker. Standalone Battery.

- No-name GPS-GSM Tracker

- xBee pro 2.4 GHz for local search al landing

- Arduino Pro for interval Timer and Beeper control

The balloon was an us army surplus, about 1500g.

Now. It was my first HAB and therefore I made some mistakes. But I find it, and this is a success. One problem I had were the strong movement of the capsule, that was off balance. The panorama program of the 12MP camera had a slow shutter and the most images were not ok. One video camera didn't worked at all, and due to the rescue only the day after another camera recorded th ground of the lading site.

“autonomous flight is not allowed. Ironically an uncontrolled parachute it is"

I've said the something about America's law.

Now first off I have to say this was great and I have some ideas you may like but some a little more up there then others so hear me out okay.

you try changing over to a parafoil design instead of a normal round chute you can get a lot of control with just adding two servos. I just don't know how well a parafoil would handles in the low Atmosphere and then the winds in the jet stream. if it doesn't handle well you could use a small round parachute you later cut to deploy the paraglider but that adds complexity. you could also have the capsule free fall until it would be low enough were we know a parafoil works. I would ass a streamer on the capsule then, it would keep the capsule from tumbling too much and slow it down some.

now if you've gone that far you might as well add a motor and propeller and make the capsule into a paraglider but that may be crossing the line into illegal territory.

also I have an interesting idea to help with your helium problem, if you add a small heater (I'm thinking some coils of nichrome wire in front of some small low power pc fan) suspended inside the balloon you could get more lift out of the same amount of gas. Of cause now that I typed that all out its most likely way to much work for most people sorry.

Well whatever you do next I'm sure it will be great and I can't wait to see it.

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Comments

Marco Glattfelder January 24, 2011 at 11:13pm

@Marshall: Uh oh! I visited the Zeppelin Museum (awesome reproduction of the Hindeburg cabin) and I saw what hydrogen can do. I know it's cheap, but I really want to stay away from greater amounts of hydrogen
Marco Glattfelder January 24, 2011 at 11:10pm

@Johann: I addition I used a commercial airliner transponder tracker App to start clear of airplanes. At least in Switzerland it's legal to track airplanes using their transponder signals. Anyway the predicted flight path was clear from any official route. I think if you consider the eral probability to hit an airplane you'll see that going to the supermarket is much more dangerous. Not for you. For the others ;-)

@Mathew: I am seriously planning to use a rc parachute and Ardupilot to land the capsule in a safe zone. There are several problems: Chute may only be opened below 10'000m, the way to fly a parachute is far different than a fixed wing and finally I need to write a software (maybe on a second arduino board) that calculates the safe spot to land on. Maybe an array of possible landing zones options can be used here. Coming down the application decides what spot is closer and lands there.
marshall scholz January 23, 2011 at 8:21am

marco, to avoid buying all that helium you co0uld electrolise water to make hydrogen instead, and have the whole electroliser assembly pressurised to 20 or so psi to avoid compressing it after it comes out of the electroliser to bottle it. it may seem like a bot of a bad idea, but as long as you keep the hydrogen and oxygen separated and ignition sources far away it should be fine.
Marco Glattfelder January 23, 2011 at 2:50am

The answer is simple: the aircrafts have to take care. I asked the same to our federal aviation bureau. They said to me that pilots are aware about that. Every day weather balloons aee going up. Asking about the radar reflector and the FAA rules they just said "we are not in USA here". Finally they tell me to do wathever I want if i start 5km away from any airport, the payload is less than 2.5 kg abd the balloon smaller than 30m3. Just the damage caused at landing may be an issue. Here an insurance is needed. Personally I beleive that the danger coming from any rc flight is greater.
Mathew krawczun January 22, 2011 at 7:16pm

“autonomous flight is not allowed. Ironically an uncontrolled parachute it is"

I've said the something about America's law.

Now first off I have to say this was great and I have some ideas you may like but some a little more up there then others so hear me out okay.

you try changing over to a parafoil design instead of a normal round chute you can get a lot of control with just adding two servos. I just don't know how well a parafoil would handles in the low Atmosphere and then the winds in the jet stream. if it doesn't handle well you could use a small round parachute you later cut to deploy the paraglider but that adds complexity. you could also have the capsule free fall until it would be low enough were we know a parafoil works. I would ass a streamer on the capsule then, it would keep the capsule from tumbling too much and slow it down some.

now if you've gone that far you might as well add a motor and propeller and make the capsule into a paraglider but that may be crossing the line into illegal territory.

also I have an interesting idea to help with your helium problem, if you add a small heater (I'm thinking some coils of nichrome wire in front of some small low power pc fan) suspended inside the balloon you could get more lift out of the same amount of gas. Of cause now that I typed that all out its most likely way to much work for most people sorry.

Well whatever you do next I'm sure it will be great and I can't wait to see it.
Marco Glattfelder January 22, 2011 at 2:51pm

My problem is more the lading. Something like a paraglide and an UAV controller may will be able to land on a safe spot. I am looking around for sponsors for next missions (even only the helium in Switzerland costs a lot!), but the uncertain landing is a problem. I need better telemetry (868MhZ at 500mW) and a way to control the parachute. Using a sort of rc glider as "capsule" will make the whole thing illegal because i can't fly LOS and autonomous flight is not allowed. Ironically an uncontrolled parachute it is. But I admit that some nice pictures from an FPV plane at take isn't a bad idea.
Riccardo Kuebler January 22, 2011 at 2:38pm

Mediadroid,
I was wondering exactly the same, but with a FPV plane. Seen that we live close ...
Ric
Sky Monkey January 22, 2011 at 1:37pm

Great job! As Ric noted, it is beautiful swinging just above the ground, mostly intact.

Thanks for sharing with us!
Riccardo Kuebler January 22, 2011 at 10:55am

It even did not hit the ground :D

Congratulations !

Best regards,

Ric
Marco Glattfelder January 22, 2011 at 10:16am

The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdAPm17Z0WQ

This reply was deleted.