Beautiful

Srirachi

Srirachi

Well-Known Member
tangerinegreen555 said:
How far away do they wind up?

If they go 20 miles up, they hit a myriad of wind streams and jet streams, right?
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Yeah it can vary wildly based on where you are, time of year, and stuff. You have to be flexible about your launch site and day which can be a little tough on young kids but it builds character I suppose. But anyway, you can use landing predictors online that calculate where your balloon will land based on weather data and parameters of your balloon like how fast it ascends and how big it is. Here's the one I usually use - even if you aren't launching a balloon plug in some data and see what would happen if you did. That'll eat an hour of your life haha

http://predict.habhub.org
 
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
lol, nah that's not really her. That photo did come up when I Googled her, though

This is her in 2018



A little chubbier, a little older, but I think she's still pretty attractive
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she is, from the looks of it, still playing small venues too....she was a hottie in her early years though...
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Srirachi said:
Yeah it can vary wildly based on where you are, time of year, and stuff. You have to be flexible about your launch site and day which can be a little tough on young kids but it builds character I suppose. But anyway, you can use landing predictors online that calculate where your balloon will land based on weather data and parameters of your balloon like how fast it ascends and how big it is. Here's the one I usually use - even if you aren't launching a balloon plug in some data and see what would happen if you did. That'll eat an hour of your life haha

http://predict.habhub.org
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Such cool stuff Srirachi! I saw something like it online maybe 6 years ago, another team that took a camera pod up almost as high. I found it fascinating. Thank you very much for bringing your pics and story to this thread.

One thing piqued my curiosity. Are you going to try for the record (which stands at over 40 km altitude)?

If so, might you select hydrogen as your lifting gas? Waay cheaper than helium and has about 106 per cent of helium's lifting power.
I imagine that safety will not be an issue so long as you don't schedule to land at Lakehurst NJ ...
 
Srirachi

Srirachi

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
Are you going to try for the record (which stands at over 40 km altitude)?
If so, might you select hydrogen as your lifting gas?
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I probably won't go for the record any time soon - I was lucky to get my stuff back last time due to using a bad idea for GPS tracking. I've got a commercial GPS tracker now so I feel more comfortable launching some better cameras but I'm taking it slow. Right now I just want my stuff back, not a record :)

And yes, hydrogen is a hell of a lot cheaper and as you pointed out also has more lift. My son was just a little too young to have around 250 cubic feet of hydrogen in a thin latex balloon last time so I bit my tongue and paid like $150 for helium. He's older now and the same amount of hydrogen is $40. Definitely using Hydrogen next time! Just have to have your static control measures on point.

GreatwhiteNorth said:
How do you ensure you avoid high altitude (or any) aircraft?
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Honestly - the same way the earth avoids comets. Blind luck. You're required to notify the local FAA controller of the nearest airport of your launch but there are no permits until you want to launch over something like 12 pounds, at which point it gets more complicated. There are some FAA rules about not launching it where it will enter restricted airspace but that's easy enough to figure out online and is seldom an issue.

From what I gather people used to put radar reflectors on them, but they were so small only a military aircraft might have had a chance of seeing it. People also put strobes on them sometimes but that's usually to make locating them easier once they land or to freak people out when they mistake it for a UFO.
 
tangerinegreen555

tangerinegreen555

Well-Known Member
Srirachi said:
I probably won't go for the record any time soon - I was lucky to get my stuff back last time due to using a bad idea for GPS tracking. I've got a commercial GPS tracker now so I feel more comfortable launching some better cameras but I'm taking it slow. Right now I just want my stuff back, not a record :)

And yes, hydrogen is a hell of a lot cheaper and as you pointed out also has more lift. My son was just a little too young to have around 250 cubic feet of hydrogen in a thin latex balloon last time so I bit my tongue and paid like $150 for helium. He's older now and the same amount of hydrogen is $40. Definitely using Hydrogen next time! Just have to have your static control measures on point.



Honestly - the same way the earth avoids comets. Blind luck. You're required to notify the local FAA controller of the nearest airport of your launch but there are no permits until you want to launch over something like 12 pounds, at which point it gets more complicated. There are some FAA rules about not launching it where it will enter restricted airspace but that's easy enough to figure out online and is seldom an issue.

From what I gather people used to put radar reflectors on them, but they were so small only a military aircraft might have had a chance of seeing it. People also put strobes on them sometimes but that's usually to make locating them easier once they land or to freak people out when they mistake it for a UFO.
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No sparks near the hydrogen.

We had hydrogen vertical bright anneal lines at work. I can't tell you how many big bangs we had.

Usually less than a cubic foot blew and you wouldn't believe the damage. They would purge with nitrogen in emergency situations. If the main line would have ignited, the whole plant and surrounding area would be scorched earth.

I learned to respect hydrogen and know where the shut down/purge button was.
 
Bareback

Bareback

Well-Known Member
Srirachi said:
I *HAVE* to recover them. The cameras don't transmit anything. You need a GPS tracker to locate the stuff. Mine actually failed on that flight but I got lucky and a cop found it and I had put my number and a little explanation inside.

The balloon is a one time use thing. What happens is, as it goes up, the air pressure in the atmosphere goes down. The balloon expands more from the pressure of the gas inside until eventually, it bursts. Then a drag chute brings everything back down and if you're lucky you recover it and get the SD cards out of your cameras. Here's everything that I recovered, and a closeup of the remnants of the balloon.

View attachment 4163811 View attachment 4163810
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Cool
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Srirachi said:
I probably won't go for the record any time soon - I was lucky to get my stuff back last time due to using a bad idea for GPS tracking. I've got a commercial GPS tracker now so I feel more comfortable launching some better cameras but I'm taking it slow. Right now I just want my stuff back, not a record :)

And yes, hydrogen is a hell of a lot cheaper and as you pointed out also has more lift. My son was just a little too young to have around 250 cubic feet of hydrogen in a thin latex balloon last time so I bit my tongue and paid like $150 for helium. He's older now and the same amount of hydrogen is $40. Definitely using Hydrogen next time! Just have to have your static control measures on point.



Honestly - the same way the earth avoids comets. Blind luck. You're required to notify the local FAA controller of the nearest airport of your launch but there are no permits until you want to launch over something like 12 pounds, at which point it gets more complicated. There are some FAA rules about not launching it where it will enter restricted airspace but that's easy enough to figure out online and is seldom an issue.

From what I gather people used to put radar reflectors on them, but they were so small only a military aircraft might have had a chance of seeing it. People also put strobes on them sometimes but that's usually to make locating them easier once they land or to freak people out when they mistake it for a UFO.
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Why latex, when a thin light (but inelastic) polythene envelope will give you more volume for less weight (I'm guessing here ... am I wrong?) and superior cold tolerance? I've seen what latex does at -80 degrees C, and it makes me squeam a little.

But yeah hydrogen seems to me to be the Racer's Edge, so long as some comedian at BASF doesn't slip you some deuterium.

I was impressed by reading about the lengths to which the other team went to get the camera to operate at those temps. The styro box doubled as heat and impact buffer ...
 
Srirachi

Srirachi

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
Why latex, when a thin light (but inelastic) polythene envelope will give you more volume for less weight (I'm guessing here ... am I wrong?)
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From what I understand, the balloon would stop going up a lot sooner if it wasn't allowed to expand. The expanding gas inside the balloon as the air pressure decreases at higher altitudes allows the helium area to increase = mass decrease. I mean, in reality the answer is because I buy a weather balloon and they're latex... but I think that's why they're latex. This way, it reaches max altitude when the balloon expands so much it bursts, then the chute brings it all back and with luck you find it and get to see your pictures!
 
jacksmuff

jacksmuff

Well-Known Member
Srirachi said:
From what I understand, the balloon would stop going up a lot sooner if it wasn't allowed to expand. The expanding gas inside the balloon as the air pressure decreases at higher altitudes allows the helium area to increase = mass decrease. I mean, in reality the answer is because I buy a weather balloon and they're latex... but I think that's why they're latex. This way, it reaches max altitude when the balloon expands so much it bursts, then the chute brings it all back and with luck you find it and get to see your pictures!
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How many balloons would I need to send myself up?
 
Srirachi

Srirachi

Well-Known Member
jacksmuff said:
How many balloons would I need to send myself up?
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One cubic foot of helium will lift .062 pounds so... a shit ton. Don't forget you have to include the weight of the lines, the balloon itself... and depending on your reasons for doing it possibly a parachute too. Red Bull paid a guy to jump out of a space capsule from 121,000 feet back in 2012 and a guy named Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier free-falling in nothing but his space suit. They used a ridiculous amount of helium to lift it all.

 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Srirachi said:
From what I understand, the balloon would stop going up a lot sooner if it wasn't allowed to expand. The expanding gas inside the balloon as the air pressure decreases at higher altitudes allows the helium area to increase = mass decrease. I mean, in reality the answer is because I buy a weather balloon and they're latex... but I think that's why they're latex. This way, it reaches max altitude when the balloon expands so much it bursts, then the chute brings it all back and with luck you find it and get to see your pictures!
Click to expand...
I'm basing my dislike of latex on an Edmund Scientific 8-foot weather balloon I mail-ordered back around 1972 or so. After a week of breathless waiting, it arrived and lasted about 10 minutes. It was also rather heavy. But as party balloons have improved, so must the larger sizes also ... and they do seem to work.

The sort of balloons NASA lofts are thin-sheet polymer. Note the small volume of lifting gas in a big big bag. I looked it up: at 100 thousand feet the fill gas expands to almost 100 times its initial volume.
(At 150 thousand feet the volume ratio is about 700 to one.)
So sizing the envelope becomes important.

The possible dealbreaker is the cost of the envelope. I do not know how easy it would be to make one from scratch - that should be cheap because the plastic sheeting is, but you'd have to be a good tailor to calculate and cut the size of the gores etc.

 
Srirachi

Srirachi

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
The sort of balloons NASA lofts are thin-sheet polymer. Note the small volume of lifting gas in a big big bag. I looked it up: at 100 thousand feet the fill gas expands to almost 100 times its initial volume.
(At 150 thousand feet the volume ratio is about 700 to one.)
So sizing the envelope becomes important.
Click to expand...
That's pretty interesting info, thanks!

I think the type of balloon you pictured there is the kind that stays up a while. The balloon bursting is integral to recovering amateur equipment since transmitting picture data back to earth is exceedingly difficult for amateurs (the theory is simple, the equipment weight is the issue). If you calculate wrong and the balloon doesn't burst, you have what they call a floater, and your stuff likely lands in the ocean.

If I was sure the next balloon wouldn't be found by a cop like the last one was I'd try and launch a seedling and recover it so I could claim to have weed from space. The temps inside my styrofoam box stayed within a range that a plant would survive, not love, but survive.

...shit now you guys got me thinking crazy stoner shit. Stop paying attention to me. It's going to my head lol.
 
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
Srirachi said:
That's pretty interesting info, thanks!

I think the type of balloon you pictured there is the kind that stays up a while. The balloon bursting is integral to recovering amateur equipment since transmitting picture data back to earth is exceedingly difficult for amateurs (the theory is simple, the equipment weight is the issue). If you calculate wrong and the balloon doesn't burst, you have what they call a floater, and your stuff likely lands in the ocean.

If I was sure the next balloon wouldn't be found by a cop like the last one was I'd try and launch a seedling and recover it so I could claim to have weed from space. The temps inside my styrofoam box stayed within a range that a plant would survive, not love, but survive.

...shit now you guys got me thinking crazy stoner shit. Stop paying attention to me. It's going to my head lol.
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ah that's the best part.......

crazy stoner shit is fun.....

morning btw
 
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
Speaking of crazy stoner shit....last night i was updating myself on Curiosity which is a rover that's on Mars. I've got to admit they've made some beautiful discoveries while it's there....that's when i came across these. The first picture i'm putting up shows 3 stars, these stars are of the Earth, Moon, and Mars's Phobos. The one thing that surprised be was the alignment.....
tumblr_m93zci0erU1qa0uujo1_1280.jpg

here is another during the sunset on Mars.......

mars_earthviewColor.jpg

bascially flat earthers can suck it at this point, but anywho.....the alignment is what struck me. Kinda looks like something we see here from Earth this time of year....aka the Orion's Belt....now this maybe crazy stoner talk, of course i was really really was , when i was looking at this......

this next picture and of course i have put this up before is orion's belt above the Giza plataue...
33339716_742028899641907_8638403873460977664_n.jpg

i know spelling blows, but i hope u get what i'm seeing...

silly stoner talk....:bigjoint:
 
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