Question

Controlling and tracking helium balloons to near space

Controlling:
I am working on a project to send an helium balloon to near space atmosphere, preferably over 50,000 feet, to take some measurements and photographs. I am looking a way to guide this balloon via some controller if possible. Specifically to control its direction in open air in some way. Should I research for a solution or should I leave it all to the wind?
Tracking:
About tracking the helium balloon, should I use an Android phone with GPS or open tracker? Any other suggestions?
May 1, 2012

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All Answers (9)

  • phani raj Lolakapuri · Indian Institute Of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram
    I don't have much experience in this area but, i hope this link will help you which i found recently.


    Http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10435

    all the best with your experiment
    May 2, 2012
  • Mani mohamed .A .P ·
    TO SEND A BALLOO N you must be breaking the ozone ; which is a crime ! hence send a rocket
    to reach the gozone ... technology has developed so much and still stupidity in que s t io n
    Jun 21, 2012
  • James Garry · Red Core Consulting ltd
    Mani:
    The presence of a balloon in the upper atmosphere in no way damages the ozone layer.
    In any case, the experiment proposed by Ippokratis takes place at an altitude where ozone concentrations are quite low.

    Ippokratis:
    I doubt that you'll be able to steer the balloon. That would require some sort of propulsion, and I suspect that your payload will be mass-limited in the extreme. As for imagery, I would suggest careful modelling of the thermal environment - your phone will get cold, and you will need to examine the insulation needs. The sun-facing side will be getting well over 1kW/m^2, but the ensemble will be in a jolly chilly gas.

    GPS will be ideal for tracking the balloon - you may want to think of more adventurous comms links. Are you hoping to get telemetry from the balloon in realtime?
    Jun 21, 2012
  • Ippokratis Karakotsoglou · University of Portsmouth
    James: Realtime telemetry would be ideal but it is not a requirement for this project. But I will need to examine it as an option.
    Jun 21, 2012
  • James Garry · Red Core Consulting ltd
    Ippokratis,
    Well, you'll not have any pesky buildings or mountains in the way (!) so line-of-sight RF transmission is perfectly viable - even commercial walkie-talkies boast of >15km separation distances. Slap a good old-fashioned acoustic modem on both ends and you should get a few hundred baud.

    Anything fancier, such as higher bandwidth, and you'll be needing a dedicated ground antenna with some directionality. The GPS tracker will give you position, so you could probably aim an antenna to better than a degree or so without too much difficulty. If you know the ground segment position (GPS again, you might be mobile) then a little trigonometry (cough) and you'll get your pointing vector.
    I leave this as an exercise for the student.

    Failing that, optically aligning with a telescope ought to be viable. Depends on cloud cover.

    Yeah - I'd try RF. Nab a ride in a hot-air balloon and then scale appropriately. You can't really use a horizontal line-of-sight experiments as there are refraction effects. Put a Raspberry PI on the balloon and then you could Telnet to it.
    :)
    Jun 21, 2012
  • Aaron Ridley · University of Michigan
    We have done this at UM many times now. In fact, we teach a class on it. The easiest solution is a cell phone that will text you its GPS coordinates every minute or so. The problem with this is that once it is above about 10,000 ft or so, you lose the ability to send text messages. Once the balloon pops and everything comes back down (with a parachute!) you should get the signal back. You can test this by setting up the phone, driving around a bit and going somewhere that doesn't have coverage and hanging out for a bit. Then go back into coverage and see if you still get text messages.

    The second easiest way is to by a pre-made kit from Bionics or someplace that will send GPS signals over APRS. This is very nice and relatively easy to do. We typically use a MicroTrak to do this, but they no longer make them. There are other options available, though.
    Jul 12, 2012
  • Erik Isberg · IK Elektronik R&D
    It is very difficult to control the direction of a balloon by other means than following the ambient wind at different altitudes. Being a balloon and airship pilot I know this unfortunate fact. Your proposed balloon also needs to be quite light and only partially filled with gas on takeoff in order to reach maximum altitude. Try to obtain an updated altitude wind profile if possible so that You can predict the flight path. Check for potential ATC problems. It may be a good idea to team up with a radio amateur. As has been pointed out previously, You will encounter very low temperatures. perhaps -60C. so make sure the electronics can take it. Al foil is good for thermal shielding from the sun.
    Sep 10, 2012
  • Ippokratis Karakotsoglou · University of Portsmouth
    Thank you Erik. Very helpful answer.
    Sep 11, 2012
  • Erik Isberg · IK Elektronik R&D
    Here is a link to a UK balloon manufacturer in Oswestry:
    http://www.lindstrand.co.uk/index.php
    Per Lindstand who founded that business has several records
    in altitude and distance for manned balloons. Used to know him since since he went
    to Chalmers University same time as I did. You could try to get in touch with them.

    Good luck with Your project!
    Sep 11, 2012

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