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Previous years' flights |
2006-2008 Flights |
Links |
| 2000 and 2001 Flights | 06-A | Mission |
| 2002 Flights | 07-A | For More Information |
| 07-B | ||
| 2003 Flights | NSTAR DVDs for sale! $5 each | |
| 2004 Flights | Other amateur ballooning sites | |
| 07-C | ||
| 08-A | Next Flight |
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Latest schedule for
Amateur Radio |
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Last updated Sunday, May 04, 2008
NSTAR is an Amateur Radio High Altitude
Ballooning (ARHAB) organization. The mission of NSTAR is to:
a) Promote the awareness and use of Amateur
Radio through the construction, launch, tracking, and recovery of balloon-borne
equipment payloads.
b) Gain understanding of the troposphere and
stratosphere by recording meteorological data.
c) Practice the
forecasting of mission-critical weather parameters for balloon
launches.
d) Learn electronics construction and programming techniques to
increase the capabilities of the NSTAR payloads.
We use helium-filled latex balloons to loft small payloads into the atmosphere, GPS to determine the position and altitude, and amateur radio to communicate the data to chase teams on the ground. Typical altitudes reached are from 10-20 miles and the balloon can travel 30-100 miles downwind over the course of 1-2 hours.
The inspiration for NSTAR came from the Kansas Near Space Project (KNSP) run by (Lloyd) Paul Verhage, KD4STH. Click here to see a recap of the 1998-99 flights. Flight testing of the first NSTAR capsule was accomplished with the invaluable help of N3KKM Bill All, formerly of the Near Space Balloon Group in the Kansas City area.
Launch weather for NSTAR 06-A was a solid overcast, but fortunately the winds were relatively light when we arrived at Scott KC0MTH’s place northeast of Treynor. The balloon fill and payload checkout was pretty uneventful and we launched at 0758 CDT (1258 UTC).
Our landing was expected to be a few miles south of Lyman IA, so we headed east on Hwy 92 toward Griswold and stopped at a local gas station for some snacks and to await the balloon burst. We had a few problems with packet reception, but attributed that to being almost directly under the balloon and in the payloads’ antenna nulls. We got enough data from the two payloads to have an idea of what was going on, however. Burst occurred at 0922 CDT (1422 UTC) at 92,290 ft.
As we were departing Griswold, we noticed that the N9XTN-12 altitude was decreasing much too rapidly. It became apparent that once again the backup beacon had fallen off the main payload and was in a free fall. Fortunately due to its light weight it was not particularly dangerous. Doug KA0O volunteered to monitor N9XTN-12’s descent and landing, heading south of Hwy 92 east of Lyman. We were able to capture a packet at 3200’ MSL, which was less than a minute before landing, so we thought we’d have a relatively easy search.
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NSTAR 06-A Flight Summary |
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From 74,000 ft during ascent |
Wayne KE6DZD and I continued east on 92 to Lyman and then south, following the main payload’s track. The payload was transmitting as it should be, but for some reason the packets were a little distorted at times and would not decode. We lost much of the data on descent, and stopped updating below 14,000 ft which made planning the end of our chase more difficult. Finally we did get some packets just before landing, which occurred at 1007 CDT (1507 UTC) in a pasture about 14 miles east of Grant, IA.
After recovering the main payload, we returned to the search area for the backup beacon, which was a couple miles southwest of Lyman. Doug was already on foot searching the field under and downwind of the last report. The field was planted in corn which was between knee and hip high and had not quite grown enough to obscure our view when looking down the rows. The red color of the beacon should have made it stand out. There were a few grassy strips in the field for erosion control, which was chest high in grass and weeds and more difficult to see through. With light winds from the northeast below 3200 ft MSL, we expected the payload to be very near to perhaps 100-200 yards south and west of the last report. We conducted a search of the area for about 90 minutes, expanding as much as 500 yards south and east, plus the entire area within 200 yards of the last report. We also closely “stomped” the grassy areas as well. All was for naught, however, and we headed home shortly after noon. I did not expect I would see this payload again until harvest time in October, if ever.
Later in the week, I received a call from a farmer near Grant. His son had found the backup beacon while cutting hay in the same field we had searched. I was not able to speak with the son to get a better idea of where he found it, but was grateful to get the payload back again. No damage was noted and the electronics all worked when recharged and powered up. We had used a more robust spring clip for the attachment to the main payload, and apparently it worked itself open too. On NSTAR 05-B we also had a spring clip failure, but it was a tiny clip with a weaker closure. It seems the large spring clip had also failed to stay closed. I have always preferred spring clips for ease of assembly at the launch site, but it appears that’s too risky. We also use spring clips at other attachment points for the same reason. Some of them will be replaced with alternate attachment methods, and the rest will be taped shut after attachment.
NSTAR 07-A should have been labeled our "return to flight" mission, as it had been 391 days since our previous flight. That beat our previous interval by almost a factor of two.
In the day or two prior to our launch date, it became apparent that (a) surface winds of 10-15 mph from the southwest would be present at launch time, and (b) we would need a launch site south of I-80 in order to avoid the possibility of landing too close to the Platte River or I-80 itself. Fortunately Roger found an excellent launch site for us - a trap shooting range on the north side of Doniphan, NE which also happened to have a great windbreak for the expected southwesterly winds. We moved the planned launch time earlier to 0700 CDT to get into the lightest surface winds possible.
Saturday the 7th dawned clear and a little breezy, as expected. We were a little behind schedule and didn't arrive at the launch site until 0620. Some groups were already filling balloons as we found our parking place. We could see that the treetops were waving in the breeze but the trees did an excellent job of sheltering us from the wind. We got unloaded and were ready to fill our balloon by about 0645.
I had debated whether to use a 1200g balloon or a 2000g balloon. I had four 1200g balloons on hand that were purchased from eBay at about $40 each. The 2000g balloon was bought for almost $200 when Kaysam went out of business and I had had it for about two years. Because the winds were expected to increase, I opted to fill one of the cheaper balloons.
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NSTAR 07-A Flight Summary |
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At just over 110,000 ft above central Nebraska, from
Flight 07-A
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The fill process went normally and we were ready to hook up our payloads. We had recently gone away from using the "lanyard" method of getting the balloon up because of their tendency to twist and become fouled. Instead, we slip the load line between the balloon and the parachute carefully through gloved hands, then up the parachute and spreader ring until we have hold of the main payload. The backup payload, separated by 20' of line, is then placed downwind and is simply jerked off the ground at launch.
Rather than using gloved hands, I decided to try using a spring clip as a pulley. The balloon would be let go and one person would hold the parachute and allow the load line to slip through the metal clip rather than through gloved hands. This would avoid the possibility of rope burns. We started this process and had begun to raise the balloon when the knot broke at the top of the chute. This released the balloon with nothing but 15' of string attached.
An expensive loss, but not fatal to our ability to fly that day. I then decided to go for broke and use the 2000g balloon and one of the spare helium tanks CNNSP had made available. We had never lost two balloons in one day, so what were the odds? The winds were staying quiet enough, so we started filling the 2000g balloon. We soon noticed a roach or other large insect had apparently taken residence in our fill tube and was blown into the balloon's interior.
Harry KC5TRB approached us around this time. The NSTAR main payload was slotted to transmit between :20 and :30 seconds past each minute. However, some of the transmissions were occurring at about :32 past. I was unable to reprogram the time slotting code and Harry was already airborne. Fortunately the :20-:40 time slot on 144.36 was still open and we just changed to that frequency to avoid the interference.
The balloon fill proceeded normally. We made our last-minute payload checks again and launched at 07:19:04 CDT.
The early part of the flight proceeded normally as we watched the balloon head east-northeast for a few miles before turning around and passing to our south. Paul KD4STH had launched about 40 minutes earlier and was looking for someone to convoy with for the chase since he did not have any tracking equipment. Because of the disparity in launch times and the fact our payloads were on the same frequency, we offered to help him chase, then we'd have plenty of time to get in position for our chase.
We headed south from Doniphan to Hastings, then east from there on US 6 towards Heartwell. From the previous day's predictions and the way the flights were tracking, we estimated Paul's payload would land a few miles east of Heartwell and not far from US 6. We stopped on US 6 for a few minutes, then headed south on a county road and were able to spot his parachute. It passed directly overhead and we were able to see it land in a soybean field about four miles ESE of Heartwell.
After we recovered Paul's payload, ours was crossing over 100,000 ft. We had hoped our 2000g balloon would best NSTAR's previous record of just over 105,000 ft, and perhaps be the highest for the day. We knew Near Space Ventures had reached just over 109,000 ft earlier. We got a report of 108,055 ft, then nothing for a period of time before burst. We were able to see the balloon as it burst - it was like a bright star that faded out over a couple of seconds. Later, our on-board logging showed a maximum altitude of 110,915 ft at 09:03:32 CDT.
We began heading southwest towards Minden. We had hoped to find a gas station but there weren't any that appeared to be open. We went north on Hwy 10 out of town and stopped to see how the end of the flight would evolve. The payloads began turning almost due east along a county road below 15,000 ft, so we began heading north a little farther.
At around 8000 ft, I could see two separate objects in the sky at the right location. At first I thought we were seeing someone else's payload that just happened to be descending along with ours. Within a few seconds, it was apparent this second object was falling much faster than the first. I rechecked our telemetry and both APRS payloads were still attached. The second object was the remains of the 2000g balloon which had finally torn loose from the neck ring and fell separately. This lump of latex fell in a cornfield off to our right as we were heading north.
We turned east off Hwy 10 onto a county road. The payloads were also traveling due east and we stayed under them for the mile and a half as they drifted east about 15 mph. They fell into a farmhouse's back yard at 09:39:10 CDT, narrowly missing the house and some power lines.
As we walked up, we could see the owner coming back towards the house. She had seen the payloads on the ground and was heading towards them. We identified ourselves and explained what we were doing. She continued her chores outside while we were getting photos and checking things over. I got her address and said we'd send some photos and other information once we compiled everything.
I had the feeling that “this is going to be one of those days” from the start. I had set my alarm for 0600 the night before, but was somewhat surprised to wake up at 0605 without the alarm going off. It turned out that it was still set for “weekdays only”. No big deal, only five minutes late.
I took a look outside and saw the trees waving in the breeze. Uh-oh. Looked like 15 mph instead of the expected 5 mph. Another bad sign. I start driving towards Gretna for our launch and begin to get sprinkles on the windshield. Just great.
I got to the launch site and scoped out a sheltered area on the grass next to the school. The sprinklers were running on a soccer field nearby – it had been pretty dry the last couple of weeks. Next to the building the winds were pretty quiet so it looked like a good place to fill our balloons. No rain at the launch site so things are looking up.
Our flights today (NSTAR and Paul Verhage/NearSys) were to support the UNO Aerospace Education Workshop. About 20 teachers created five BalloonSats earlier in the week and they would be flown on our two balloons.
Soon the teachers arrived and we began to set up in earnest. Since three BalloonSats were already attached to the NearSys flight train, we opted to fill and launch NearSys first, with NSTAR and its two BalloonSats to follow shortly. We got a break on the surface winds and the NearSys balloon fill went smoothly. After the tracking payloads were checked out, we began to raise the balloon into launch position.
Suddenly we heard a ‘snap’ and the balloon floated away without anything but fifteen feet of line attached to it. We looked around and found that the ring attaching the load line to the parachute apex had failed.
Now we had a problem. We had only enough helium to completely fill two balloons, plus a bit extra. With the loss of the balloon and its helium, we could only fill one more balloon. Our sources for helium were not scheduled to open for at least two hours. We decided to transfer the BalloonSats and one of the lighter NearSys experiments to the NSTAR flight train and just fly one balloon for the day.
We got the payloads transferred to the NSTAR flight train and were almost ready to start filling the second balloon. Suddenly the sprinklers on the edge of the sidewalk went off, spraying the entire area. We managed to get four people to stand on the tops of the sprinkler heads to suppress the spray and everyone else grabbed the flight train, fill equipment, and the tarps and moved everything to the adjacent parking area. After getting off the sprinkler heads, one of them came apart and became a two-foot-high geyser. I found the parts and attempted to insert them back into the sprinkler head, but only managed to get myself soaked in water and a bit of mud in the process.
The balloon is filled and the rest of the launch process goes smoothly. With Paul’s experience of a balloon loss that morning and NSTAR’s own loss at GPSL, we decide on a “Hail Mary” launch – stretch the payloads downwind from the balloon and let the balloon lift the payloads off. This works well when you have enough handlers to hold the payloads, which we did that morning. We launched our balloon at 0829 CDT (1329 UTC).
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NSTAR 07-B Flight Summary |
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NSTAR Flight 07-B just before launch from Gretna High School
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Our first stop on the chase was a truck stop at Hwy 63 and I-80, about 20 minutes away. The balloon was at about 50,000 ft when we arrived and was passing to our southwest and south. Once the balloon got some angular separation from the sun’s position, we were able to see it in the sky when the clouds were not in front of it.
Our predicted path took the balloon a little southeast before turning to the west, with an expected landing comfortably east of Lincoln. As the flight progressed, the balloon went more south than southeast. We also expected a burst around 85,000 to 90,000 ft, but the balloon kept ascending beyond that altitude. The teachers kept cheering the altitude reports as they went higher and higher, but our projected landing site kept moving farther and farther west into Lincoln itself.
This was making me very nervous. I had participated in a handful of flights with KNSP and other balloon groups where the landing occurred in a populated area. All three times, fortunately, ended well with the payloads landing safely on the ground and not on a roof, in a tree, on a street, or hung up in power lines.
Finally, burst occurs at 1002 CDT (1502 UTC) and 97,409 ft. The burst location is about 10 miles west-northwest of where I expected it to be. I did some quick looks at the map and estimated a landing site somewhere around Hwy 2 and 14th or 20th Streets, in the southwest part of Lincoln. This was still a built-up area, but at least we were getting towards the edge of town.
We depart the truck stop and head towards Lincoln. I chose to chase south to US 34 and planned to come into Lincoln from the east – in retrospect, we probably should have headed on I-80 and then south on US 77. As the flight was descending, I slowly got more optimistic again. The winds were taking the track a little west of south, which was moving the landing to the west side of the Salt River which largely defines the western edge of the built-up areas of Lincoln. With a little luck, we’d have some open ground to work with.
As we come into Lincoln, it’s apparent we won’t be there for the landing. We make our way west on Old Cheney Road on the south side of Lincoln and the balloon is due west of us on the west side of US 77. From the maps, it looks like it’s not very built up over there. We’re still a few miles away when the landing happens at 1043 CDT (1543 UTC).
We arrive about 10 minutes later. As we’re approaching the landing site, a lot of the area is wooded and still somewhat residential. About a mile away, we see two police cars off the side of the road with lights flashing, next to a sports field complex. We thought briefly that we may have landed there and caused a stir, but our maps show the landing was quite a ways away from there.
As we make our last turn to get to the landing site, I can scarcely believe our luck. There is a 20-acre soybean field right where our landing should be. There are some trees nearby, but we don’t see the parachute in them. There’s even a gravel access road running very close to the landing site, and shortly we can see the parachute lying on top of the beans.
One other concern I had as we were pulling up was that the descent rate was much slower than usual. With right at 12 lbs of payload, I would have expected our near-surface descent rate to be about 1200-1300 ft per minute, but instead it was a bit under 1000. Plus our backup beacon had not been heard from since burst. I had visions that our BalloonSats and backup beacon had left formation somewhere over north Lincoln. But again luck was with us and the entire flight train was still strung together in the corner of this soybean field. Examining the landing configuration, I noticed that the balloon had not fouled with any of the payloads or chute so we must have had a nice clean ride on the way down.
We packed the payloads out and the teachers examined their experiments while I looked over the NSTAR equipment. The digital camera took almost 400 photos with many interesting ones of the varying cloud cover we encountered. The backup beacon had quit due to a DB9 connector coming loose after burst. Otherwise everything worked very well on this flight. Later I got a note from K9KK in Norman OK saying he heard our main payload at a distance of 393 miles.
We planned to meet at a Chinese buffet in Omaha to review photos and talk about the flight. But in one last bit of bad luck, that restaurant had been closed by the health department a few days earlier. Instead we went to the Valentino’s nearby for some lunch.
A quick recap for now. Our 1200g Kaysam balloon burst at 5709 ft not very far from the launch site. Landing was about 50-100 ft west of the Elkhorn River to the northeast of Valley, for a flight distance of less than three miles. Had the flight ascended a few hundred feet higher, it likely would have landed in the river. This flight (unintentionally) is the shortest and lowest flown by NSTAR. Flight time was approximately 8 minutes. The balloon was about five years old, but showed no signs of improper storage when unpacked (it was purchased from eBay).
Launch conditions were a low overcast with fog and very light drizzle, but nearly 60 deg F which is quite mild for mid-November.
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NSTAR 07-C Flight Summary |
NSTAR 07-C landing site, showing Elkhorn River in background |
Our first flight of the year was for the 2008 Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium in Lincoln. NSTAR has not flown from the symposium since 2004 due to weather problems and other circumstances in the intervening three years. We enjoy flying from the symposium, though, as we usually have a crowd of 250 or so to watch us launch.
The weather forecasts for the week leading up to the flight did not look very good for us. Southeast winds of around 20 mph were forecast for our launch time, which is more than we like to have. However, the launch site on the UNL campus was in a built-up area with several trees and buildings, so we headed for Lincoln that morning in the hopes that things would be good enough despite the wind.
Most of us arrived around 8:30am and we checked out the area. There was a nice open space to the north of the building where the symposium was held, good for a balloon launch. I walked around a bit looking for a quiet spot where we could fill the balloon as out of the wind as possible. The winds were not quite as bad as expected, but there weren’t many quiet places that were suitable. We picked a spot downwind of some trees which helped a little bit.
Setup began about 9:30, after we determined it wasn’t too windy to start. The balloon fill actually went much better than expected – it didn’t bounce around nearly as much as I thought it would given the winds. To minimize the amount of time between start of fill and launch, all the payloads were hooked together prior to the start of the balloon fill. I don’t really have a good idea why we weren’t doing this on a regular basis before, but we’ll make a point of doing it now. After a couple last-second checks of the payload, we launched at 0958 CDT (1458 UTC).
Our chase plan required us to depart as soon as possible after the launch, so we packed up and headed north through Lincoln. After a couple of missed turns, we finally got on I-80 and headed northeast to Omaha. We made a few simplex repeater contacts along the way, including Larry N0BKB who was leading another group of balloon chasers coming from the east. Both payloads were transmitting fine and things were looking quite well for us.
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NSTAR 08-A Flight Summary |
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The end of Flight 08-A, south of Elliot, IA. Photo by Lowell Abarr KB6SDI |
Burst occurred at 92,296 feet at 1118 CDT (1618 UTC) while the balloon was
a few miles west of Malvern, IA. After burst, the main payload’s packets became much weaker and more garbled, leading to fewer than one decoded packet in 3-4 minutes. At the time I suspected an antenna may have been torn off, so we switched to the backup beacon’s frequency. We chased east on Highway 92 from Council Bluffs to near Griswold, then headed south. Larry and his team were already in the vicinity, and Lowell KB6SDI was in position to get some excellent pictures of the touchdown at 1200 CDT (1700 UTC). Our chase team was about two minutes behind, so we were not able to see the landing.
The payloads landed just off the road inside a barbed-wire fence, but the backup beacon payload had actually rolled under the fence after landing. Recovery was a matter of grabbing that payload and pulling the whole string under the fence – we didn’t even have to climb over it. Even if we had to, there was a gate not far away. No power lines, no cows, no trees, as wide open as you could ask for a landing site. The chase teams headed for Griswold for a lunch at Dusty’s before returning home for the day.
This flight featured the first use of our Canon PowerShot A560 7.1 Mpixel camera. The camera can be scripted with the
CHDK firmware, which lets you (among other things) program the camera to take pictures at regular intervals without having to ‘hack’ the camera’s shutter button or permanently modify the firmware. The camera can be returned to original functionality just by swapping out the SD card. Over 400 pictures were taken with excellent exposure and color quality – a great improvement over the Concord 4060AF previously used.
At this writing, we suspect the main payload’s antenna may have broken internally. This antenna has endured a lot of abuse as it has flown (and landed) for 20 flights or more. It will be swapped for another one prior to the next flight.
The picture below is from about 73,000 ft on ascent and shows the moon on the right side of the image a few degrees above the horizon.
08-B - Saturday, May 3rd at the Ashland
ARC swap meet in Wahoo.
This flight has been postponed due to unfavorable launch weather and
schedule issues. New flight date is likely to be Saturday, May 17. Main APRS will use N9XTN-11 on 144.36 MHz and backup
APRS using N9XTN-12 on 144.39 MHz. Simplex repeater on 446.30
MHz.
08-C - Mid-late June
08-D - Saturday, July 19th for the UNO Aerospace Education Workshop
08-E - Saturday, August 2nd at GPSL 2008 in
Kansas City, MO
Questions? Just e-mail me. We use the Yahoo Groups list to exchange information about balloon launches - subscribe if you're interested! Or click here to view the group information without subscribing. The KNSP e-mail list always has the latest information, as I can't always update the web site as quickly as I can send e-mail.
Feel free to come out for a launch and/or chase! We generally travel in convoy, so it's not necessary to have a ham radio to follow the group. If you have a scanner to bring, that will help for following the action. Some of our chasers have passenger space available too - just let us know ahead of time so we don't pile it full of junk!
Several donors have contributed funds toward NSTAR, and many others have contributed their time and effort to help with launching, tracking, chasing, and recovering our payloads. Many thanks to you all. If you would like to contribute, just drop me an e-mail.
73 de Mark
N9XTN
Updated 04 May 2008
