JP Aerospace Blog

We’re getting ready to start testing the airship’s drag reduction systems. The main tool we will be using is a mach two shock tube. A shock tube is a very short duration wind tunnel. It ‘s made of a long tube with a burst plate at one end and test chamber at the other. The tube is pumped down to vacuum then the plate at the end is burst open. This causes a supersonic wave to travel down the tube into the test chamber.

We have a 10000 samples per second recorder so we can measure the speed of the wave. The first goal of the system is to be able to turn it on with out it imploding. After that we’ll slowly start increasing the speed of the system. We hope to have it running at Mach 2.2 within a year.

Ascender 26 is a small vee shaped airship. It’s a test bed for systems for the Ascender 100. This spring we will do several flights of Ascender 26 to 1000 feet.

First balloon valve mission. The valve is used to control the ascent rate and to hold the balloon at the destination altitude. We’ve done two valve flights so far. Next year we’re planning at least two more.

This is a closeup of the valve from Away 71, our second balloon valve mission.

We just completed our 22nd flight of the year. That puts us to 160 all together. Here are csome images from last weekend:

Away 94

Away 95 with Away 94 in the background (the little white spot within the frame on the upper left).

Away 95 just after launch with Away 94 in the background.

MiniCube at 103,000 feet.

We were on Japanese TV last night! Here is the link to a summary of the show. It’s all in Japanese but you can see pictures from the episode and flight by scrolling down on the right. We filmed the show and flight last July.

http://www.ntv.co.jp/q/oa/20130908/01.html

We live on a particularly pretty planet.
View from Away 86.

The drawing was made two years before the flight,

The Book “Floating to Space” is available at our on line store. The airship to orbit program, the balloons, the rockets, the adventure, it’s all in there.

We tested our new valve system on Away 71.

This valve system has three ports: fill, flight termination vent and a valve we can open and close during flight. The valve uses two computers, one is autonomous the second has a wireless connection to the vehicle’s main controller. We sent commands of open and close patterns from the mission control van. The valve lets us control the climb rate, hold at peak altitude and then descend into favorable winds for an easier recovery.