Okay, so it's not as much of a problem as it is payload --one of the discoveries I made last week when Kevin Drumm allowed me to come into the the HAS workshop and poke through their stuff.
I wrote a piece a few months ago about HAS, but that was back when nothing made sense. Today, some of it made sense, proving that progress can be made even in the most confused of people.
Next week, weather permitting, of course, HAS will launch their balloon, which is made of latex by the way, and not some special space material (which I was under the impression they were made of, for some reason), ordered from a company called Kaymont. It's a "sounding" balloon, meaning that it must be. . . sound, I'm presuming. Technically, they were supposed to launch last week, but the glorious skies of Michigan prevented this from occurring.
I discovered many interesting things on my visit to what I refer to as the Balloon Room.
Discovery #1: You can track the path of the balloon online in real time during a launch! The website is aprs.fi and APRS stands for automatic position reporting system. All you have to do is type in the station name (like a radio station), which is KC9PHZ, and you can watch the balloon on its beautiful journey through the world.
#2: You launch from the Western parts of Michigan so that you can avoid situations in which your balloon lands in Lake Eerie or in the land of farmers. Essentially, you do you this to avoid having the Jet Steam push your balloon too far off course.
#3: You can kill the balloon: Attached to the payload, there is a flight termination unit that the FAA requires each balloon to be equipped with. This way, if your balloon goes berserk, you can end its life before it starts to terrorize a nearby a town or city. I imagine people don't take well to things falling from the sky these days. Especially if its as bizarre as a package of electronic do-hickeys attached to a parachute. I, for one, (if I was engineering-ly inept) would be a little concerned if such a thing fell into my yard. But hey, that is just me. And the FAA. And the rest of America.
#4: There is more. . . but I am going to draw this out for a bit and make this post a Part 1 of a two-part series. Instead, I will leave you with some pictures.
