For the total solar eclipse of 2017, we thought that we would launch a high altitude balloon
equipped with a 360 degree video camera.
No one had done this before and we thought it would be a great project.
Not that we had ever used a 360 degree camera or launched a high altitude balloon, but we
did have a friend, Zach, that was on the recovery team for a balloon.
He had to spend a whole day looking for the balloon and a whole second day climbing up
a tree and sawing the payload out of the branches.
I didn't want to climb a tree so i said we should launch in Nebraska.
SPOILER ALERT, we totally totally landed in a tree.
Unlke most high altitude balloon projects, which just launch anywhere on Earth and just
stick a camera out the side of a styrofoam cooler, we needed to make sure that our footage
was stabilized and we had to pay attention to where we were launching from.
That's because we wanted to capture the total solar eclipse.
And there is only a narrow band that crossed the entire United States in which we could
launch.
And if we went the the wrong place, we would either land in the mountains or we would be
landing in trees.
So we picked the middle.
We wanted to launch somewhere that was nice and flat.
And the location that we picked just so happened to have another balloon team launching there
so we knew if we had forgotten any supplies they might have something for us to use.
Now that we picked out our location to launch, we need to make sure that our balloon is going
to fly in a nice smooth ascent and it is going to reach the correct altitude so we can see
the shadow of the moon being cast on the Earth's surface.
I did trajectory analysis with every size balloon from 800 grams all the way up to 3000 grams.
And that's because we didn't want the balloon to go too far down range.
So we thought maybe we need a smaller one.
but we wanted to capture the entire solar eclipse, which is about 2.5 hours long.
So in the end we decided to use the biggest balloon we could find for the longest flight.
Our next major challenge was to design and build a custom camera rig, because nothing
on the market met our needs for quality and stability.
So the first thing we did was prototype one out of styrofoam.
And we took it out to the Mars Desert Research Station.
And there we ran into a couple of issues.
The cameras were over heating and shutting down after a few minutes, but we didn't know
if this was a problem because we were in the desert.
Because the people were also over heating and shutting down at the same time.
After some research, we found a stabilization system called CHAD.
And this took and IMU and coupled it to a stepper motor and some gears and kept our
camera rig pointing in the same direction.
CHAD getting a little heavy with all the fears and the stepper motor and we were only allowed
six pounds per payload package.
So we decided we were going to create a hanging CHAD and have it be a separate package just
above the camera rig system.
However we were running out of time.
So we had to vote against it.
Now that we weren't using our rig really started to take shape.
We were able to incorporate our heat sink and fan combination so we wouldn't over heat
the GoPros during flight.
We could incorporate the battery packs and power providers so that we had power to record
the entire flight.
We used 3D printed parts, carbon fiber tubes, and we left one side removable using threaded
inserts and screws.
Now that our camera system is coming together, we needed a way to attach it to the rest of
the payload train.
WE decided we needed a passive stabilization system since we got rid of our active one.
We used something we dubbed the marionette.
It had paracord running down from the four corners and it stopped the rig from rotating.
Tim wanted the paracord to be really really long in order to stay out of the wake of the
balloon.
These two CAD models show you the length of paracord that Tim wanted and the diameter
of the balloon at launch and at burst.
The marionettes and the GoPro rig were all made using 3D printed plastics parts and carbon fiber tubes.
We held them together with an adhesive called Loktite 410.
I wasn't sure if this would survive the flight or if it would break apart into a million pieces.
So we made sure to take all the GoPros and attach them together using fishing line and
then each payload was combine together using paracord.
We were worried about thermal management.
Down on the ground, the cameras get really hot.
Up in the high altitudes it is too cold for the batteries.
So the batteries had to be wrapped in mylar and we had to put heat packs in with them.
And the cameras needed heat sinks on the back of them and fans for the lower altitudes to
keep them cool.
And when we were at the higher altitudes we thought about putting foam on the outside
of the GoPro rig in order to keep them warm.
So we were still worried about the GoPros not working right and we found that there
was a new product called the Garmin VIRB.
So we bought one.
Now this came along late in our design process so we had to build a rig to hold it last minute.
Tim used a white board and drew out a last minute design for it.
And we called up Zach because he was at True Value and we were like "Zach get us some of
these parts."
And we actually ended up making it just out of a cardboard tube and some washers.
During trajectory analysis, sometimes we'd land in rivers.
So I wanted to make sure that all of our systems were water proof.
Tim had to rip off the GoPro door in order to hook it up to the battery.
So we had to make a 3D printed seal for it.
The already came with a water proof marine mount so we were good there.
And our tracking system was inside of a styrofoam ball that would float if it happened to land
in a river.
And Zach brought along a dry suit in case he had to go swimming.
Inside that sphere we had two tracking systems one used satellites and the other used the
amateur radio APRS network.
And in order to track on the APRS network we needed a ground station.
We had an antenna that was going to attach to the truck, but we didn't want it to get
bent up during transport.
So we made last minute rig just like with garmin.
We had an electrical conduit box and a bunch of PVC pipes laying around and we had no way
to attach them together.
But I had this hand moldable plastic and I'd been wanting to use it for five years.
So we formed all the sides and molded it by hand and we cooled it using with an upside
down compressed air tank.
Now that everything was built, we took our 20 hours drive our to Nebraska and the day
before the eclipse we were fortunate enough to be able to help another ballooning team
with their test launch.
New Mexico State University was launching a scientific payload.
And we got to see that it was super windy in Nebraska.
And we stood underneath the balloon and tried to keep it above the sharp blades of grass.
And we also got to see that our balloon was probably going to clear the tree line the
next day when we did our launch.
And that lead us to launch day at Homestead National Monument in Beatrice Nebraska.
We had a lot of volunteers come out and help us keep the balloon from hitting the ground.
One of them asked us "what happens if the balloon pops?"
But it didn't pop...it flew away.
[gasps] "Oh No" "OH MY GOD" "OOOOO" Now that our 3000 gram balloon escaped, we had to go
into emergency mode.
We grabbed our 800 gram balloon and then we filled it with whatever helium we had left.
So we had to use a fishing scale and hold it on there in the wind and see how much lift
it had and cut off chucks of our payload.
We had to get rid of our GoPro rig.
We had to get rid of a lot of paracord.
And we even took out our spare battery with the Garmin rig.
And then we launched.
[sounds of rain and cheers]
After we launched, we were packing up our stuff and the total solar eclipse happened.
Unfortunately, it was too cloud for us to see but down on the ground we could see what
looked like a sunset all around us on the horizon.
As we were going to leave, it said that our payload had actually landed.
As were began to drive off, it said it had taken flight again and landed across the road.
So we were trying to get there before it kept hopping up and going further and further away.
So while we were driving, Zach notices that another APRS user was broadcasting a transmission
and also headed towards our rig.
So we weren't sure what their motives were and we wanted to get there before them.
Thankfully when the wind picked up the parachute and took it across the street, it smashed
it into a tree and mangled up the APRS antennas.
This meant whoever was tracking it could not longer see it.
And since we had the SPOT we were able to find it really easily.
[Tim laughing and grass rustling] That's awesome.
Is the VIRB still on?
Look at it!
Alright lets give a celebratory high five.
We found it!
Recovered!
Hey!
It pointed it upwards.
If you were going to ask for a landing, you couldn't ask for a better landing than that.
We should have brought the pole.
We could have had it out with out the second trip.
So that is our story of Project Lofty.
But we have a lot more balloon left and we would love to do more projects with you guys
and we want to share some of our lesson that we've learned.
So stay tuned for videos on our design and how to calculate burst altitude.
And remember, keep exploring.
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