On May 3rd, 2018, the students of Cardinal Gibbons High School launched NSL-62. Tim W. consulted with the team and lead the launch and chase. The payload consisted of a foam box with outrigger arms.
The CGHS students made a small 3D printed school logo which was epoxied on a 1m/4mm carbon tube. The figure was counter balanced with a small pill bottle with water inside (0.5m out one side of box and 0.5m out the other). Aboard the box was:
- PocketLab Voyager
Recording temperature, acceleration, and magnetic field - SPOT backup tracker
Worked well - ABLEGRID GSM Tracker
Pinged once at launch and only started to ping again 30 seconds after it hit the ground - RunCam2 120-degree video camera, powered by a 2500mAh Li-ion (18650 cell
The lens iced up in the center at altitude and stopped recording just before burst. It started to record again once it hit the ground.
Tim notes: “The cell had 35% charge left when I got home. Maybe it got too hot or maybe there is a hidden off timer. I will experiment.” - Samsung Gear 360
Very good footage. It stopped recording just before burst, most likely due to dead battery. Its battery only has 90 min record time on the ground and was was dead at retrieval. - AP510 APRS tracker
This tracker failed on the last flight and was very intermittent on the ground with 2017 code. It was back rev’d to 2016 code and all was well. AVOID 2017 CODE on the AP510! The tracker was configured to use Mic-E to create smaller messages.
Tim notes: “My Baofeng tracked it to about 25k ft. But on landing the last relayed ping was at 2k ft.”
The payload and chute weighed in at 1050g. A 500g cell was filled with ~80 cu ft of Helium (dumped all of a 80 ct ft cylinder).
After launch, the payload spun about about 1 rev/s due to the fin affects of the 3D model attached to the arm.
The PocketLab Voyager device recorded -30C outside but the inside never went below 10C.
Upon recovery the 20ft of cord was tangled into a 2ft mess above the payload. Almost all of the balloon, 490 grams came down with the payload. Tim has never seen anything that extreme before. The descent rate upon impact was +10m/s (2000ft/s). Thankfully there was no damage to anything — just a small indent in the soft soil.
Atmospheric gravity waves are clearly seen in the stratosphere. The parachute fouled early on, which led to a faster than usual descent.