Parts list for High Altitude Ballooning

There are several companies that will sell complete HAB kits, but I would suggest that you save money and buy the parts separately (ex. NCnearspace can loan the specialized balloon filler gear).  Below is a very common design for HAB — It puts a parachute between the balloon and payload so that the parachute will open after the balloon bursts.  We will need to work with the students to come up with the needed design, but typical school launches would have one or more payload boxes under the parachute. 

• Latex weather balloon   [$50-$200 ]
  The size and manufacturer of the balloon is important and is determined by the mass of the payload and the altitude that you will reach.  They are sold by weight.  A general-purpose balloon that I suggest for a <3lb payload is http://www.scientificsales.com/8240-Weather-Balloon-600-Grams-Natural-p/8240.htm   But you will want to finalize your design before purchasing the balloon.
• Rope [$5]
  The rope used to connect the balloon to the parachute and payload can be most any type of strong string that you can pick up at a hardware store.
• Parachute [$10-$50]
  The parachute needs to be sized to the mass of the payload.  With the design above, you will need to be able to attach the rope to the top of the parachute.  You can sew your own parachute or purchase them from several locations (http://www.the-rocketman.com/recovery.html )
• Payload consisting of:
  • Payload box    [free?]
    This can be most anything from a simple lunch cooler, to Styrofoam coolers, to just a cardboard box with foam inside.  As long as the electronics are insulated from the cold, you don’t even need a box.  From a design standpoint, I would suggest that the box be light weight and that it not have a lot of open space inside of it.  As the payload ascends, the air pressure decreases and the warm ground air leaks out of the box.  As it descends, the frigid outside air is then pushed back in.  If you keep the inside air pockets small, then you reduce this a bit.  I prefer a clear container with black foam inside.  This acts as a greenhouse and pulls in and traps solar heat.
  • Two tracking systems  [$350 or borrow them]
    If you want to ensure that you get you payload back in a timely fashion, I would suggest TWO tracking systems for redundancy.  Typical HAB flights make use of a low-altitude Spot™ Tracker (http://www.findmespot.com/en/ ) that has been set to transmit its location to satellite every few minutes.  This device is typically $100 BUT requires an additional yearly service fee $150.  This device will only return the latitude and longitude when under about 40,000 feet.  It will not tell altitude.
    Typical HAB flights also use a high-altitude “APRS” Ham radio transmitter.  These devices have specially built GPS units that will transmit the latitude, longitude, and ANY altitude.  Some may also record data onboard and even transmit temperature and other data. They send signals to a special national Ham radio network and require a licensed Ham radio operator to turn it on.  These specialty devices can be found from $100-$300 (https://www.radioddity.com/us/sainsonic-ap510-aprs-tracker.html       http://bigredbee.com/blgps_2mhp.htm ).   Because of the cost of these two items, it may make sense for you to borrow these from parents or NCnearspace – but what happens if they get broken/lost?  Otherwise you’ve invested in some specialty electronics that you may not use again until the next time you do this.
  • Cameras  [$80]
    There are many small, high definition video and still cameras.  GoPro is a common popular camera system but they are pretty expensive for what they are.  Some HAB folks will purchase old Cannon point-n-shoot cameras and then ‘hack’ them with special software so that they take stills and video (these can be heavy though).  I suggest that you instead purchase some inexpensive ‘dash cam’ video cameras.  The video is recorded onto microSD cards that are inserted into the camera ($15 for 32GB card for hours of video).  The cameras can record 1080 HD video, but these videos are huge.  I typically just have them record at 720 HD which is smaller and easier to edit.   I have had bad experiences with wide-angle lenses on these cameras.  Some wide-angle lenses have a tendency to go out of focus at low air pressures.  Most cameras will not have enough battery to last the entire flight.  So you will want to add more battery power.  This can be done by replacing the existing battery with a much larger one, or by adding external $4 USB charger with Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries (https://www.google.com/webhp?q=AA+battery+usb+portable+emergency+charger&tbm=shop ).  I have had very good luck with these three models, but check with me first as there are forgeries for sale as well:

Mobius Mini camera
(https://www.google.com/search?q=mobius+mini) is small and light weight.    You can purchase these from many locations on the Internet for $65-$80 and you can also get them with special video output cables that would be useful to connect to other projects.  This model has many programmable features and produces excellent video.  I have also flown the slightly larger Mobius Action Camera, but I find the new Mini to be superior.

808 #16 HD camera
I have also had decent luck with the much cheaper “808 #16 Lens-D” camera (https://www.google.com/webhp?q=808+%2316+keychain+camera&tbm=shop )  These are the older versions of the Mobius and run $40-$50.  They only go up to 720 HD video, but they are even smaller than the Mobius.  Only go with the #16 model of this 808 camera.

Mate808 HD camera
Newer to the market is the very inexpensive Mate808 (https://www.google.com/webhp?q=mate808&tbm=shop  ).  It is cheaper version of the unit above with a simplified electronics.  The camera does not compress the video as much, so the files are larger, but in return it doesn’t use as much power.  It will run much longer on the same amount of battery.  They also sell a ‘naked’ version of the camera so that it can be mounted into projects.  There are very few configuration options, and the video quality is lower, but this would work as an additional camera to film specific things or act as a backup.

Other resources:

http://www.balloonchallenge.org/tutorials/

http://jhabproject.com/parts-list/

http://www.societyofrobots.com/space_balloon_index.shtml

Parachute size calculator:
http://www.rocketreviews.com/descent-rate-calculator.html

Prediction tool:
http://predict.habhub.org

A write up of the regulations courtesy of Ken Corless:
http://kfcrandom.blogspot.com/2013/09/launching-weather-balloon-to-near-space.html

Regulations, Legality and the FAA (note: this applies to the USA only)

There are lots of concerns out there about whether or not it is legal for “regular citizens” to launch a weather balloon.  We had some people (read “parents”) who were very concerned about this risk.  I personally spent several hours doing research on the topic including talking to 3 different parts of the FAA.  Here is what I learned:

1. It can be legal to launch a weather balloon if you follow some basic procedures.
2. The launching of a weather balloon is governed by a regulation called FAR 101 (officially known as PART 101—MOORED BALLOONS, KITES, AMATEUR ROCKETS AND UNMANNED FREE BALLOONS)
3. Essentially FAR 101 says that your weather balloon does NOT fall under the rules of FAR 101 as long as it meets some basic guidelines (payload is less than 6 pounds, has a weight/surface area ratio of less than 3 ounces per square inch of your payload box, uses a rope that requires less than 50lbs of force to free the payload from the balloon, you don’t launch anything from your balloon.  You can ignore the paradox that the regulation defines what is not governed by the regulation 🙂
4. There are other rules that you do have to follow (or at least should as far as I can tell.  The paradox is still tripping me up).
   1. <snip>
   1. Don’t launch between sundown and sunup.  I’d even advise not launching within 3 hours of sundown.
   1. Don’t launch on a very cloudy or overcast day.  You’re video would be crappy anyway.
   1. <snip>
   1. Don’t launch in the Class A or B airspace of an airport.  Since I live near O’Hare, we went out to my nephew’s house which is farther than 30 nautical miles from O’Hare.
   1. Don’t launch within 1000 feet of “a congested area of a city, town”, etc
5. Notification.  This one I found to have the most conflicting advice.  Many sites tell you that you should or must file a NOtification To AirMen (NOTAM) with your local FAA ATC (Air Traffic Control).  I talked with three different groups in the FAA and it appears that this is no longer required if your balloon does not fall under FAR 101.  Several sites told me it was a good practice to follow even if you are not required. One helpful gentleman at the FAA told me that NOTAMs for balloons not covered under FAR 101 are no longer accepted.  Eventually, I talked to a very nice woman at Lockheed Martin Flight Services (the FAA has outsourced some functions to Lockheed).  She told me that she does not take NOTAMs for weather balloons not under FAR 101, but if I really wanted to file one, she would take it.  To save you the run around, the number for National NOTAM services is 1.877.487.6867.