[Discuss] Near-space Balloon: A couple more drawings

[Kevin King]

Something came up this morning and I will not be able to attend the NSB meeting 
this afternoon.  I have included my notes in hope that a discussion will be 
started on these subjects.  If someone could please take real basic notes or an 
outline of the topics discussed today so that I can rehash with Rick on Monday, 
that would be great.  We could possibly start making brief notes for each 
meeting and post to the wiki for those that can't make the meeting.  We could 
start an agenda for the meetings also.

1. Secondary Tracking Device
2. Battery Considerations
3. Radar Reflector

-Secondary location device
In my research I have found many sites that have strongly recommended a 
completely seperate tracking device. in the chance that the primary fails, stops 
transmitting, or battery dies.  I am a huge proponant for redundancy and think 
this would be a good addition to the payload.  We could possibly hang it from 
the primary payload, although that would not be as sexy.  I have been looking 
into both radio beacons and cheap cell phones for this purpose.  I have most 
recently been researching cheap GPS enabled prepaid phones with additional 
software.  One piece of software that I found was www.mapmytracks.com.  This 
would be a simple and cheap way for a backup tracking system.

-Battery Considerations
Many sites reference using only non rechargable lithium batteries in their 
payload.  When concidering the temperatures found in high altitude (-40C) non 
rechargable lithium batteries are the best choice.  Has anyone else done any 
research on this subject?

-Radar Reflector
The last item I have for discussion is whether or not we need to include a radar 
reflector to our payload.  I have found that many near space balloon projects 
include a reflector.  This will make it possible for aircraft to detect our 
balloon.  I thought the FAA guidelines required a reflector, however I have seen 
several balloons that did not include one.

 



________________________________
From: Ben Hallert - Vipmail <EMAIL HIDDEN>
To: Laura Harris <EMAIL HIDDEN>
Cc: "EMAIL HIDDEN" 
<EMAIL HIDDEN>
Sent: Fri, November 4, 2011 1:34:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Discuss] Near-space Balloon: A couple more drawings


If we call it Creswell Maker Space, then our enemies would have a more difficult 
time finding us.

Foolproof!

- Ben

On Nov 4, 2011, at 11:51 AM, Laura Harris <EMAIL HIDDEN> wrote:


I almost put a break in the line to indicate "some unspecified long length". :)
>
>
>
>I was going to ask about the name this evening at the shop- I picked up 
>'society' in one of the emails. I'll change all instances.
>
>
>
>
>
________________________________
From: Rick Osgood <EMAIL HIDDEN>
>To: Laura Harris <EMAIL HIDDEN>
>Cc: "EMAIL HIDDEN" 
><EMAIL HIDDEN>
>Sent: Friday, November 4, 2011 10:38 AM
>Subject: Re: [Discuss] Near-space Balloon: A couple more drawings
>
>
>Looks good Laura, thanks for working on that.  Looking at the second image (the 
>one that includes the balloon) I want to mention that normally people tend to 
>stick a 20-30 foot piece of rope between the parachute and the balloon.  I can't 
>recall the exact reasons for this but it seems to be the usual way of doing 
>things.  I realize it's impractical to include that in a diagram like that 
>though. 
>
>
>
>Also, I'm not sure where "society" came from but it might be worth mentioning 
>that our group's name is actually Eugene Maker Space.
>
>
>On Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 10:17 AM, Laura Harris <EMAIL HIDDEN> wrote:
>
>The plan x-section gives a better picture of the reinforcing rib layout. The 
>main assy dwg is a statement of the obvious but still nice to see how it all 
>goes together :)
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Discuss mailing list
>>EMAIL HIDDEN
>>http://eugenemakerspace.com/mailman/listinfo/com.eugenemakerspace.discuss
>>
>>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
>Discuss mailing list
>EMAIL HIDDEN
>http://eugenemakerspace.com/mailman/listinfo/com.eugenemakerspace.discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://eugenemakerspace.com/pipermail/com.eugenemakerspace.discuss/attachments/20111106/68871c14/attachment-0009.html>