Poster Presentation

Development of a “Multi-cut” Payload for use in Stratospheric Ballooning Missions

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Abstract

The ability to cut strings (AKA lines) during stratospheric ballooning missions has a wide variety of uses, including, but not limited to: (a) flight termination (i.e. cutting payloads away from the main balloon), (b) cutting away excess lift balloon(s) to slow ascent rate (and possibly achieve float), (c) cutting away ballast weights to slow descent rate or increase ascent rate, (d) cutting away burst balloon(s) on descent to avoid parachute entanglement, and (e) cutting away payloads which are intended to return to the ground independently for experimental purposes. We report on the development of a “multi-cut” payload box that uses an Arduino microcontroller that can control the cutting of multiple strings in arbitrary order at arbitrary points during a mission, expanding our options for stratospheric ballooning operations. For example, this device may be used during the solar eclipse of August 2017 to drop a timed-series of independently-recovered Geiger counter payloads from a stratospheric balloon stack to characterize changes to the Pfotzer maximum as the Moon’s shadow passes.

How to Cite:

Habeck, J. (., Biniek, N., Smeaton, S., Langford, A. J., Diers, J. & Krieger, I., (2016) “Development of a “Multi-cut” Payload for use in Stratospheric Ballooning Missions”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2016(1). doi: https://doi.org//ahac.8843