University of MN Gopher 24 Near Space Balloon Launch - December 21 2009

SARA members assisted Dr James Flaten KDØAWK and Cait Mantych of the Univeristy of MN Space Grant Consortium with the Gopher 24 near space balloon launch and recovery. Near space flight Gopher 24 reached an altitude of 16.8 miles, more than twice the altitude at which commercial jet liners fly.

The launch and in flight photographs were taken automatically by a Canon Powershot camera programmed by Rick Brennan KØBR, SARA President. Recovery site photographs provided courtesy of Dr James Flaten.

SARA thanks the University of MN Space Grant Consortium and their Director Dr James Flaten and team for allowing SARA to fly its "SARA POD II" on the Gopher 24 flight. We thank the Onamia Elementary School for allowing use of their basket ball courts for the launch preparations.

The flight stack had three tracking pods all transmitting APRS data, two from the MNSGC and one from SARA. One tracking pod built by U of M's Danny Retzlaff KDØIES, was the only APRS tracker unit to transmit APRS data consistently throughout the flight.

Launch was 10:50 AM on a cold and overcast Monday morning from the basket ball courts of Onamia Elementary School just south of Mille Lacs Lake MN, with a slight ground breeze out of the North West.

The predicted track of the balloon was to the south east with the originally predicted landing expected in the Dallas WI area. Later predictions indicated a more northerly track and landing in the Rice Lake area.

SARA members John Harvard KCØUHY and Justin Richert KDØIQV assisted Cait Mantych and the U of M team with launch preparations and the launch at Onamia Elementary School, and thereafter departed to track the balloon and assist Dr James Flaten with recovery. Dr Flaten had gone ahead directly to the expected landing area.

The "payload stack" comprised a number of experiments designed and built by U of M students and also SARA POD II which for this flight had a still camera as well as flight computer included in what had previously served as only a tracking pod. SARA tracking was based on an Argent Data Tracker transmitting APRS data on 144.390MHz at 700 milliwatts.

SARA POD II failed to transmit consistently after balloon burst at ~ 88,488 feet. Post flight inspection of SARA POD II showed that the coaxial cable connecting the transmitter to the 300Ohm twin lead J Pole antenna had been pulled loose inside the pod during "post burst chaos". Post burst chaos is that period of time immediately after the balloon bursts and before the stack and attached parachute have descended to an altitude where the atmosphere is thick enough to open the parachute and slow the descent.

Location of the landing site and recovery proved to be no problem on this flight and Dr James Flaten arrived at 'ground zero' about half an hour before the SARA recovery assist team and directed the team to the location. Landing was in a harvested corn field on a private farm.