Solar unmanned balloon launch
July 2, 2014
On July 2, 2014, faculty and students from the Computer Science and Atmospheric Sciences departments
attempted to launch a solar balloon. This balloon was another 16' diameter tetroon, made from
36 black plastic trash bags of 30 gallon capacity and 0.5 mil thickness.
The balloon carried a payload of two water bottles, each weighing one pound (to simulate a
cubesat payload), and a 30g radio sonde for tracking and measuring atmospheric parameters.
The balloon was filled and launched in nearly perfect weather conditions. Unfortunately,
the balloon only rose to about 100' AGL of altitude, and began to descend when it
snagged on a nearby light tower, destroying the envelope. The balloon and payloads
were recovered without further incident.
While failure is disappointing, the flight did provide valuable data in the form of an
upper limit for payload mass for the 16' diameter solar tetroon. A previous flight
successfully lofted a 17 ounce payload, so it is now know that a one pound payload
will work, but a two pound one will not.