High altitude balloon launches are unpredictable and constant teachers. On a recent launch in December 2019, we were reminded of a few key lessons. Learn from our mistakes!
In this post, join us as we launch a test payload with our planned equipment (GoPro Camera, Colbert Platform, Astronaut Ice Cream) to ensure everything will be ready for the actual Colbert launch. Come Launch with Us!
This is the story of our launch to assist The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to send Astronaut Ice Cream to near-space for the first time!
Perhaps you recognize this post's cover photo from a recent Late Show with Stephen Colbert skit: Astronaut Ice Cream is a Lie. Indeed, that skit used Launch with Us planning and flight hardware to plan for, execute, and retrieve the space ice cream payload. To make sure that we reached our objective altitude, we had to ensure that we chose the proper launch configuration. How did we do it? More about predicting altitude is below, while more details on the story of the Colbert launch itself will be coming in the next blog posts!
Although High Altitude Balloon (HAB) launches can be fun and educational, care must be taken to abide by the governing laws and regulations to ensure the safety of pilots and those that may be impacted by the launch and landing. This blog post will cover the applicable laws and regulations that apply to High Altitude Weather Balloon launches.
The key to any successful HAB launch? Successful planning! Because of the huge number of variables in any given launch, many amateur (and veteran) launches do not go perfectly according to plan. However, with the proper planning, you can reduce the uncertainty and increase the probability of a successful launch.
Our preparation and launch checklists are free to download.
During our first years of work on this project we developed what we feel to be a reliable and low cost spacecraft for High Altitude Balloon projects. In keeping with our mission, we decided to open-source the design of our “Dogeship-Class” spacecraft for anybody looking to get into this hobby but don't quite know what to purchase for their first launch.
This has been a great machine to learn with and has enough room for experiments while still being very portable and flyable. This weather balloon kit list, combined with our HAB User Guide, should get you started! Additionally, we are very open to feedback on this design - seasoned veterans, we want to hear from you!
The links provided in the list (2019 list here) are all to Amazon.com and use the 'Amazon Associate' program. If you decide to purchase some or all of this material, we kindly ask that you use the links below. You pay the same price you normally would, but we get a small percentage of Amazon's normal fee as a referral bonus. Any proceeds from this will help to keep this website and resources free and available to everyone!
Base Spacecraft Requirements (~$110)
Payload Housing (Styrofoam Cooler)
One Required
This comes as a 2-pack, we couldn’t find a single for sale at a reasonable price
Hand Warmers
We used a single warmer last launch which seemed to work fine. Two on prior launches.
[Update Aug 2016: we actually don't use any hand warmers on well-sealed launches now that use a GoPro. The electronics are sufficiently self-heating, as long as they are not in the direct air-stream on ascent and descent]
Long Zip Ties
Two Required
Key is 36” long zip ties. This is how we attach parachute and hold everything together.
Short Zip Ties
Any bag of small, assorted zip ties will work.
$7
40 feet required
Legally must be 50 pounds or less, we use 40 pound line (the force it breaks at).
40 foot line means if parachute gets snagged in tree the payload should be dangling near the ground
$12
Any USB battery backup will work, we used this on our last flight. This can run our cameras and TM for >6 hours
OR
Top Flight 24” Parachute (PAR-24)
$12
If you have the time we highly recommend checking out the Top Flight parachutes from our friends at
http://topflightrecoveryllc.homestead.com/
Their parachutes are very high quality!
Ground Equipment Recommendations
$60
We developed this after our first launch was a nightmare. Since we started using it we essentially unpack and launch because of this tool. We highly recommend this as it makes everything a lot easier pre-launch. Proceeds go to more research and open-source material
Payload Recommendations
$53
Note: The RioRand is a 720p video. We recommend a
for this.
Recommend GoPro for proper 1080p or 4k resolution and/or a still camera for high resolution still photos
$175
Recommend GoPro for proper 1080p or 4k resolution and/or a still camera for high resolution still photos.
$25
Find a used Canon from eBay -we have used the SD780IS. Make sure to get the appropriate memory card for your camera.
Install Canon Hack Development Kit and run the intervalometer to take periodic images
Telemetry Recommendations (more info here)
HUAWEI Fusion 2 U8665 Tracking Cell phone
$50
NOTE: A used GSM or CDMA android phone will work fine as well. Our software (soon to be open-sourced) does require Android version 4.2 or lower (critical function is disabled without root above 4.2)
or
$9
Ting GSM SIM card - No contract, Universal SIM, Nationwide coverage, Only pay for what you use. We have used Ting for all four launches and have been very happy with their service. We typically use around 200 texts for a launch, so the price comes to around $13 including taxes.
$8
Memory Card to store Flight Data Recorder file. Our TM code presently requires a memory card to run. More details in a future post.
NOTE: Our cell phone TM system has only flown a few times. While we are confident in it, if your payload is something you cannot afford to lose we recommend getting a SPOT satellite tracker for telemetry.
We recommend not cutting a hole (such as this picture) in the Styrofoam that goes completely to the inside of the cooler unless you have prior experience or testing to know that your internal electronics won't freeze.
We hope that you find this BOM useful and inspires you to perform your first launch! Again, we welcome feedback from any veterans as we work to make our design less complex, more efficient and less expensive.
Disclaimer, Amazon makes us put this here:
Launch with Us is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com
It is with great pleasure that we are able to offer our first contribution to the High Altitude Balloon (HAB) Community: our HAB Launch Step-by-Step User guide! Subscribe to our mailing list here to Download your FREE High Altitude Balloon (HAB) user guide
The download is completely Free, and we are open to any and all feedback to make this a more useful resource for fellow HAB enthusiasts. All that we ask to download the free user guide is that you sign up for our mailing list.
This user guide takes all of our knowledge and lessons from over four launches in the past year and compiles the information in a clear, easy to read format that we are hoping will help many others reach near-space as we have!
In the future, we intend to use the mailing list to contact HAB enthusiasts to get feedback on our user guide and other services, as well as to provide updates on our launches, free services and helpful information, and future products.
We hope that someday our tools and material will allow weather balloon launches to be accessible to anybody, regardless of background. Our approach is to allow people to use a low cost tracker with minimal time invested, and not require that anyone has a HAM radio license or in-depth technical background.
This HAB mailing list is planned to be used for the following purposes:
1) Get in touch with the users of the Instruction Manual to be able to solicit feedback and improve it for future HAB enthusiasts
2) To share news about new releases of the User Guide, our planned open-source tracking software, and other free references for anyone looking to learn more about HAB launches
3) To send information, to those interested, about some of our hardware offerings that were developed (Quick Launch System) that we found simplified the launch process
For mailing frequency, we have not yet determined what the community would find most useful, but we do not foresee anything more often than once a week, and it is likely much less than that (our blog and Twitter are planned to be used for more frequent updates).
Request: If there is anything else that people would like to hear about via our mailing list, we would love the feedback so that this list will add value and we can make near-space more accessible to everyone!
Our promise: Your information will not be shared with any other parties and you will only receive HAB-related updates on a periodic basis from us.
