What’s Happening at JPA

There are more good ones, but these are the few you never let get too far away from your desk.

10. Shenandoah Saga, by Thom Hook 1973

9. Touching Space, The Story of Project Manhigh, by Gregory Kennedy 2007

8. The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space, by Craig Ryan 1995

7. Man High, By Lt. Col. David Simons (MC) USAF 1960

6. Airship Aerodynamics, by The United State War Department 1929

5. Airship Technology, by Gabriel Khoury and J. David Gillett, 1999

4. Magnificent Failure: Free Fall from the Edge of Space, by Craig Ryan 2003

3. Pressure Airships, by Thomas Blakemore and W.Watters Pagon 1927

2. Up Ship, by Lt. Commander C.E. Rosendahl 1931

1. Floating to Space, The Airship to Orbit Program, by John Powell 2008
(OK, you had to see that coming…)

Here are some more burst and descent stills. These are from the horizontal HD camera. Being horizontal there are some good landing scenes.

Here are some cool frames off one of Away 38’s video cameras.

We’ve added a Away 36-37 mission page. We’re slowly getting caught up.

At 99,340 feet.

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:

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.