Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Ᵽ Ɵ Ᵽ Ᵽ Ï ℕ $: Autonomous Recovery System for High Altitude Balloons |
Arturo Cuevas Katie Stapleton Marc Harvey |
Yifan Chen | design_document1.docx design_document2.pdf final_paper1.docx other1.pdf other2.pptx proposal1.pdf |
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| Arturo Cuevas (acueva8), Marc Harvey (marcdh2), Katie Stapleton (kes8) ## Problem Two weather balloons from about 900 sites are launched every day of the year. When a weather balloon is launched from a site, it floats up to altitude (anywhere from 40,000ft to over 150,000ft), pops, and floats back down using a parachute. The final landing location could range anywhere from 10 miles to over 200 miles from the initial launch location. If far away, time has to be taken to find the payload, and if lost, the launcher would not be able to recover the data collected or technology used. ## Solution Overview Our weather balloon will navigate to a specified landing location (back to the launcher, to another lab, etc.). When the parachute opens up and the weather balloon is descending, mechanics in the payload will adjust the strings based on the payload’s location to direct it to the user-defined location, which is set prior to launch. ## Solution Components ### Parachute Connected to the top of the payload and the bottom of the weather balloon to control the speed and direction of descent. ### Payload Main cargo of the weather balloon that stores all navigational components and the user’s primary scientific/recreational equipment. ### Locating System Tracks the location of the weather balloon used in descent steering and payload recovery. A compass will be used for direction and GPS will provide coordinates and altitude. ### Stepper Motors Strings of the parachute will be pulled (wound up) and released using motors. They need to be stepper motors because we need the winding to be very accurate, but not necessarily quick. ### Control System Programmed to control the motors and guide the balloon decent by making adjustments based on the current location and goal landing position. ### Power Supply At least a 6000mAh LiPo battery. The real total will be determined after looking at the payload weight and testing conditions. ### Heating Since temperature drops significantly with increase of altitude (around -69.70 Fahrenheit at 50,000 ft), we need a heating system to protect the devices with minimum operating temperatures. This could include hand warmers or a mechanical heater, and is subject to change due to testing conditions. ## Criterion for Success When we drop the payload and parachute from a high height (either from a tall building or by launching it with a balloon), it lands close to a target. We will measure how successful it is by how close it lands to the target. ## Contingency Plan We are fortunate enough to have a design that can be mostly created from home. We would only require basic tools like a soldering iron if we were not able to use the lab anymore. |
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