JP Aerospace Blog

At 99,340 feet.

The JPA Zone.

The team just roll out with the mission control van in the lead. I’ll be following in about 5 minutes. Tomorrow at 4am we’ll be on the lakebed for the launch of Away 38. This will be our 100th flight.

This mission is pretty packed. Lots of new gear being checked out and some special stuff once we’re at the edge.

Here’s a recut version of the Away 22 high altitude propeller test mission from six years ago. I’ve put in the scenes from the recently recovered camcorder.

See “Home Again” post on May 27th.

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Saturday we continued getting ready for the Away 38 mission. We pulled the main controller and one of the camera controllers off the vehicle for chase a couple of problems. We spent most of the day in pursuit of a spurious balloon release firing. We’re narrowed it down to the main controller that flew on the Away 35 mission. It only happens on a fully charged battery and only if heavy transmission loads are experienced in the first 10 minutes of operation. It sounds like a bad transistor in the relay amp, but we haven’t found it yet. We replaced the controller, but we’re going to shake it out some more to be sure.

The second camera controller got a software upgrade. It was reseting after it executed a command sent to it my the main controller. It didn’t effect it’s function, but it needed to get fixed. Normally the camera controllers are autonomous. This one we’re linked to the main controller so it’s tied in to the launch command.

A new cable harness for the still cameras was finished and the search for the mission panel continued. When the new carpet went in everything was in chaos. Somehow we managed to lose a panel of a new balloon we’re making. How can you lose something 28 feet long!!

Here’s some more images from the test:

Rocket 1

Rocket 2

We conducted a full duration test of the Away 38 vehicle on Saturday. The vehicle was hung from a pole to simulate hanging from the balloon. The test went really well. The vehicle carries two small rockets and they were launch from the vehicle as well. There was one problem with the balloon release system we need to chase. The rocket launch boxes are one time use. We’re already made their replacement. We need to switch them out and make a new cable for the video camera controller. After that Away 38 will get another full duration test (without the rocket launches) then will be good to go.

Frames from on board video of the small rockets leaving Away 38 during ground testing.

We blew a tire on the mission control van on the last mission. With the next flight looming it seemed time to get the rest replaced. The thought was validated when a second tire on the van blew out only three blocks from the shop on the way to the tire garage.

Now with five new tires and a diminished budget, at least the wheels are ready to go.

Eventually everything finds its way home.

A little over a week ago I got a call from a rancher in Nevada. They had found some gear in the desert with our name on it. It was a couple of cameras and batteries. I could not figure out what it was. The site was about 100 miles away from the long lost Away 6 mission. They dropped it all in a box and a few days later it was here.

In the box was a camcorder, a digital still camera, a custom battery pack and a small board with a basic stamp on it. It has our stickers on it, but it still didn’t make any sense. Away 6 had film cameras not digital. The only two unaccounted for vehicles were the stolen Away 34 and the Mesospheric Explorer. However, the equipment didn’t match either vehicle. Also was the problem of where was the rest of it. There were no decks, carbon poles or other structure, just some very weathered squares of foam core.

I pulled the memory card out of the camera and dumped it to my laptop. 940 identical images of a tree, bush and patch of desert. It appears that the camera reset on impact. Turning to the camcorder I popped in a new battery and pressed the eject. The tape ejected like it was new. I dropped it into a newer camcorder and rewound and pressed play.

Away 22
Away 22, Ascender propeller test.

This was a very successful mission that had a bit of an adventure on landing. It was carried aloft by six balloon. It descended for a “soft” landing riding three balloons down. We tracked it all the way to touchdown. It landed hard on a ridge. When we got to the landing site, the propeller and motor were there, but the rest of the vehicle was gone. Without the weight of the motor and prop it had taken off again. Only this time with a dead telemetry system.

Away 22 was found a few days later by a power line crew in a very remote area two hundred miles away from the original landing site. Everything was there except the camera and camcorder. I’ve always thought the line crew kept them, they were innocent after all. The impact on the ridge had popped the lids of the insulated boxes open. Between the first and second landing sites the vehicle tipped open and dumped the cameras in the desert.

Unfortunately the tape only shows to about 70,000 feet. The testing was at 80,000 feet. All the flight and test data is still just from the transmitted data and video. There are still some great scenes though. While Away 22 was climbing we spun up the prop a few rotations every few through feet. This was just keep the motor from freezing up. I’ll have a highlights video up in a couple of days. For now here’s some stills off the video.

From Away 22 on board video