Welcome to my little corner of the inter-net. You will find some useful things. Currently I only have the pictures from a recent balloon satellites launch to show the world.

Be there or be square.

Recently (April 2006) my class launched its Balloon Satellites project. Now the concept of this class is that you make a package to be sent aloft on a weather balloon. The project takes some sort of data and floats back to earth on a parachute (which was new this year, just keep that in mind). So first I have some pictures of the us preparing the project for launch.

The two pictures above are the project we constructed. The top one shows most of the box, and the bottom one shows the internals of the project. You can see the data acquisition board and the computer interface (serial cable). The shinny piece of tin foil is covering the actual instruments (bottom right-hand corner in the bottom image). The project was designed to measure cosmic radiation. The two foil-encased Photo Multiplier Tubes are glued to a plastic material that glows when it is struck by radiation.

This is outside of the project after it was rigged up for flight. The high voltage sticker was kind of a joke because the project runs on 1000Volts at 1 nanoAmp--nothing dangerous (I know, it shocked me at least once). After launch we tracked the packages via hand radio and GPS. We followed them all the way from Jackson's Mill, WV to just outside of Staunton, Va. Now we've never had the projects come down in a city; so we were looking forward to an easy retrieval. Turns out we were in for a great surprise.

The projects had landed on train tracks and actually been run over by a train. Of the four projects that went aloft, three were recovered. Of those three, only one actually survived the train crash. It is pictured below hanging from some telegraph wires.

One of the projects damaged belonged to the professor of the class. His project must have been flailing along behind the train until it impacted a bridge abutment. This is really all that was left of his.

His project was a total write-off, but he was able to recover his data card. At least we can see the train hit the projects in the GPS data.

This brings me to our project. It was never found. CSX swears that it is still stuck to coal car somewhere. I figure it was ejected far from the tracks, and we just didn't see it. Remember how it had that high voltage sticker on it? Well that was enough for CSX to stop a train and have the crew search it. Oh, and the brand-new parachute?

It was just shredded over about 10 miles of track.

I leave you with some mild humor on this engineer's part.

Two PMTs: $80.00

Scintillation Material: $250.00

GPS equipment: $80.00

1KV Power Supply: $163.45

Having your balloon satellites project run over by a coal train: Priceless

Update June 24, 2006: Project has been found!!

Some nice engineer at CSX had seen the box laying in the ditch for about a week when his train was moving slow enough for him to jump off and investigate. He saw our phone number on the top and called Dr. Kuhlman. He shipped it back to us, and we were finally able to see what was left. I don't have pictures of the PMT unwrapping, but I can tell you there was nothing left of them. The PMTs had literally exploded from the impact or the constant heat inside the box. We did get data which has not been analyzed yet, but it does look like out project has hit by at least two different trains (or the same one twice) before the batteries died.

Our project after about a week in the ditch; doesn't look quite as good as it used to does it?

The insides look alright, but the PMTs (left side) are a total write off. The scintillation material was cracked on the one paddle, but it survived on the whole. The data stack (right side) was basically intact. After a few minor repairs, it fired right back up again and let us see the data.

The inside of the box looks a little worse for ware, but it did its job well. It stank of mildew when we got it back, but the engineer told us the lid was still attached when he found it. Can I build a box or what?

Thank you to the engineer who found the project. We greatly appreciate you effort! If I ever get his address, I'll be sending him a nice letter at the least.

Update 2: 01-05-2007: Project has been revived!!

Seems that the Fates and Gods have aligned to give us a second chance. Turns out NASA has a program called the High Altitude Student Platform (HASP). HASP will provide our project team with the opportunity to launch again with a similar payload (but with over 10 times the budget :)). We have applied to the HASP, and are currently waiting on notice of acceptance. Currently the project is in the planning stages. Basically the same payload will be constructed. More pictures to come!!! :)