Riding the wave of success from Mission 1, the team was confident and set to work planning for a second launch.  The team created a list of goals for the second mission, this time with the intent of gathering data that would be used in a paper and project to be submitted to the Mendocino County Science Fair.

 

Mission 2 Goals

 

1. Send a camera and a data collection device into the Stratosphere via weather balloon.

2. Capture full High-Definition video (1920x1080 pixels) at the peak altitude (Mission 1 had captured video at a resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels).

3. Attempt to reduce camera fogging that had occurred in Mission 1.

4. Record internal and external temperature data.

5. Record light intensity data in lux (1 lux = 1 lumen per square meter) from sunlight to look for changes at different altitudes

6. Recover the craft after landing.

 

The team decided to retrofit the same spacecraft for this mission with a sensor that measures light intensity.  The team wanted to see if there were differences in light intensity as the craft rose to higher altitudes.  Since we did not have an altimeter that would function at high altitudes, we were relying on the temperature data to help us estimate altitude.

 

The team was very confident.  After having launched and retrieved the Mission 1 craft in only a matter of hours, the team was sure that this mission would go off just as smoothly.  

 

The team assembled on the morning of Saint Patrick's Day- March 17, 2012.  In the spirit of the holiday, a puffy leprachaun sticker was affixed to the front of the craft, hopefully bringing some luck of the Irish to Mission 2.

 

With the craft and gear assembled, the balloon was filled.  We inflated this balloon with a bit less helium, which provided a slightly slower ascent rate and would in turn have some dramatic effects on the craft's maximum altitude.

 

At 7:58 am the balloon and capsule were released once again into the sky.  The Anderson Valley was overcast in a thick layer of fog, and it was only minutes before the craft disappeared through the clouds out of sight.

 

Back to our tracking station, we watched the signals coming in from the craft as it headed southwest.  It looked as though it may head west towards the ocean, which would be less than ideal, but as it headed into higher elevations it turned and headed northeast.  It soared over the city of Ukiah at over 40 miles per hour and at 9:07 contact was lost.

 

Although we knew that we were going to lose contact with the balloon as it rose to the elevation where the GPS signal could not transmit, it still caused us anxiety not knowing exactly where it was or where it was headed.  So we waited.  And waited... 

 

After an hour, still no signal.  We began to figure that we'd lost our craft.  Had it kept going into space?  Had it fallen to earth and the GPS failed?  Was it abducted by aliens?

 

But then at 10:27, an hour and twenty minutes later, we finally got a signal back.  Twenty minutes later, it landed in the Mendocino National Forest, 37 miles away.

 

Instructors Bagnell and Snyder immediately set to work finding the shortest path to this area within the National Forest.  After downloading the appropriate maps, they hopped into Bagnell's 2-wheel drive truck and began driving.  About an hour and a half later, they were within about 5 miles of where the craft had landed, but realized that they needed a 4-wheel drive vehicle to travel the rest of the way.  So they turned around and headed home.

 

The next day, equipped with more gear and a 4-wheel drive vehicle, they made their way back to the National Forest and were able to go a few miles further.  Being late winter, there was a considerable amount of water flowing in the creeks and rivers.  About 3 miles from the landing site, they encountered a creek that was much too deep to cross by vehicle. 

 

To make a very, very long story short, they crossed the waterway on foot and hiked the several miles towards the craft- they thought.  Turns out they made a wrong turn and headed a few miles in the wrong direction.  After correcting their mistake they finally arrived at the spot on the road where the craft lay only 600 feet down the hill.  They thought they would have it recovered in no time.  

 

However, being that this region had some of the densest scrub brush and manzanita either of them had ever seen, it took them nearly an hour to traverse the 600 feet, crawling on their hands and knees, in the snow, to reach the craft.  

 

Having finally recovered the craft, it was time to head back and examine the contents of their data.  It had been quite a recovery effort.  After about 11 miles of hiking and crawling in the dirt and snow, with torn clothes, a lost camera and a lost shoe (Snyder dropped his shoe in the creek and it floated away) the two finally made it back to civilization.  

 

There were some striking things about the imagery and data that came back from this mission.  First of all, the camera captured full HD video and recorded some stunning scenes of the Earth below as the craft rose above the clouds. However, the camera fogging issue had not improved; it had gotten worse.  Later we realized that the moisture from the foggy morning atmosphere at ground level had been trapped inside the waterproof casing of the camera. Upon reaching higher altitudes, the moisture condensed as the air pushed its way out of the casing leaving it on the inside of the camera case.

 

There was something very interesting about the data.  The external temperature had fallen to about -40 degrees Celsius and stayed around that temperature for over an hour.  Then the temperature rose almost back to 0 degrees, fell sharply again to almost -60, then back up again.  We were confused as to what was going on until we realized what had happened.

 

The craft had risen into the tropopause, the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere where the temperature stays between -60 and -40 degrees Celsius.  As the craft rose into the stratosphere, the temperature began to climb again, a normal condition within the stratosphere.  The temperature rose almost all the way back to 0 degrees Celsius, indicating that our balloon had ascended to the upper reaches of the stratosphere!  Estimated to have reached an altitude of 42-44 kilometers, it had doubled the altitude of the Mission 1 balloon and remains our highest-flying balloon to date!

 

 

Mission 1 Stats

 

Horizontal Distance Traveled: 36.5 miles NW

 

Peak Altitude: Approximately 138,000 feet

 

Total Flight Time: 3 hours