JP Aerospace Blog

This balloon carried 400 PongSat student experiments to the edge of space.

Support PongSat at Kickstarter. Only nine days to go!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569698176/2000-student-projects-to-the-edge-of-space

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569698176/2000-student-projects-to-the-edge-of-space

Everyone who flies a PongSat takes a journey. It is the ‘Way of the PongSat’. OK, it sounds silly but if you can have ‘Tao of Pooh’ and the ‘Te of Piglet’ you can have the ‘Way of the PongSat’

The background is the google Earth track of a PongSat misson. In the upper right is a high rack vehicle carrying 400 PongSats and in the left is some early PongSats. The little smudges on the PongSats aren’t really smudges. They are the initial of all the student who worked on that PongSat.

Please support PongSat by making a donation at Kickstarter, Only nine days left!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569698176/2000-student-projects-to-the-edge-of-space

One thousand, sixteen students have signed up for September 27th PongSat mission.

We are getting an amazing group of space explorers together. There are girl scout troops, university aerospace classes, lots of homeschool kids, special needs along with advanced placement classes. Six countries are represented and I don’t know how many US states. This is just the beginning. I fully expect to have 2000 PongSats signed up by mid May.

It will take six of our High Rack balloon vehicles to carry the 2000 PongSat student experiments to 100,000 feet. We will be launching them in pairs so they can video each other in flight at the edge of space.

JP on the Space Show radio program! Tune in Next Tuesday (April 15th) at 7-8:30 pm. I’ll be talking about Airship to Orbit, PongSats, Shock Tubes and 36 years of this crazy OTHER space program. Listen live on the web!!!!!!!!  Call in and email in during the show and say HI!

http://thespaceshow.com/

When we started PongSat we thought “wow we could do hundreds!”  After 14,300 we’ve learned to set our sights higher.

It’s space week at Make Magazine. They featured a great article about JPA and PongSats!

Last night we conducted Magnetohydrodynamic generator test number 107.

Initial burn

Mid run

Intake detail

A moment in the life of a PongSat.

We finished glassing down and sanding the electromagnet mount on the bottom of the sub. This pics shows one being tested. The 40 pound weight is being held in place by the electromagnet. I wanted a sphere for the drop weight so it would roll off the hull if the sub was upside down. Kettlebell weights are prefect for the job. They are spherical, come in all sizes, are iron that the magnet really likes and they even have a handy handle!

STEM is an education acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. PongSat has it all!

It was a busy day yesterday Just about all aspects of JPA got worked on. From camera prep for the next mission to building a new wiring harness for the MHD the team was cranking.

Paul working on the max current config for the MHD generator and our intern Julian learning how to solder.

Richard measured the velocity of wave in the first one inch of the supersonic shocktube. We first glued then glassed the magnet mounts to bottom of the hull of the submarine.

These are the new magnet brackets for the submarine. We will mount two under the nose and two under the tail. Each gets an electromagnet that will hold a 40 pound emergency drop weight.