The team woke the Tandem airship up from her year long slumber. They reinstalled the main controller, put batteries in and ran the main engines. It looks like we need to remount the motor RPM sensors and a few other odds and ends but it all looks good.
The Bellavia (submarine) was pressed into service for the space cause. We used her as an analog to test hatch diameters for the high altitude crew module. We also need to build a hatch for the sub and want to share a few components between them. We cut a hole in a foam sheet and proceeded to crawl in and out of it, (ok, I admit it, I was making submarine noises while at the time…).
We also assembled and ran the first round of test on two tracking systems for the upcoming missions. Anthony was drafted into cutting in half more ping pong balls for the New Mexico Balloon Museum event. The parachute anchor reinforcement came out of the mold beautifully. We trimmed it and mounted on the underside of the Sky Pup.
Preping Tandem and the parachute anchor bracket
Parachute mount on the Pup and PongSats
Hatch Work
ok, I’ll bite. When/why did you build a submarine?
It’s a great project for engineering and crew training. She (The Bellavia) lets us work out life support and other systems. The project has been on hold for about seven years. Just too much going on, however, sometimes I can’t help sneaking in a little work on her. Technically she’s not a JPA vehicle, building submarines is my hobby on the side, but when needed everything gets thrown into the mix.
Had any conversations with Peter Madsen? He built his own submarine too and is now working on rockets (Copenhagen Suborbitals).
I’ve followed his work pretty close, but we’ve never spoke. His submarine work really puts ours to shame.