What’s Happening at JPA

There’s a article about JPA at Science 2.0. It’s a good article.A few minor errors (Dark Sky Station will be at 140,000 feet not 180,000 feet and we never charge for PongSats). However overall it really captures what we’re up to.

http://www.science20.com/robert_walker/can_giant_airships_accelerate_to_orbit_jp_aerospaces_idea-225058

Ascender 9 now has it’s motors and props!

It’s morning at the edge of space.

It was midnight when we dragged our exhausted, dust covered bodies
back into town. There was a dozen of us unloading in the parking lot
of “Bruno’s Country Club” in the little desert town of Gerlach, Nevada.
The restaurant had been closed since 8 that evening and the nearest
anything was a two hour drive away. Then out from the bar comes this
truly ancient and grouchy man, Bruno himself. In his broken English
“What the hell yous doing out
there. Get in here.”

He ushered us all in and then he vanished through the connecting
door to the restaurant while say something about us being damn
fools (I’m paraphrasing Bruno’s language was much more grand,
expansive and colorful). A bit later out comes Bruno in his apron
with plates of sandwiches, potato salad and coffee for the crew.

Years before Bruno kept the bar open for just me till 4 in the
morning while waiting for word that one of our recovery teams
making out of the desert was safe. In those wee hours I got the
whole story of Bruno’s life growing up in Tuscany and exactly why
Italians are better at raising cattle. He wouldn’t hear of shutting
down until we got the news everyone was safe.

Too many stories.

Bruno passes away this week at the age of 94.

Since our first flight in the Black Rock desert in the early 80’s
Bruno has taken care my team.

Thank you Bruno.

One more segment and the two 80 foot long keel trusses for the new Ascender 9 airship will be done.

The team is getting Away 123, our latest high altitude mission, ready for flight.

Wild weather has been pushing back all our flights. We’re ready, now just looking for a window.

The team did a full vehicle assemble and test on Ascender 36 on Sunday. We’re getting her ready for the second flight.

The vehicle numbering system has changed. The transition is a little confusing. Before all the airship got a number based on length, Ascender 36 is 36 feet long for example. This became a problem when switching to metric. Is Ascender 100 called Ascender 28 in the UK?  To simplify it all we gone to sequential system. The new 94 foot airship is Ascender 9 because it’s the ninth one we’ve built.  We are not going back to change the names of the older airship. Upon that path lays chaos. So Ascender 36 remains Ascender 36.

Sunday the team was working away on Ascender 9. We inflated both arms and installed chamber dividers and one of the helium lifting cells.