Habmc

HABMC is the online mission control from which we can monitor balloons launches. It updates automatically in real time.

Public Page

The public page of HABMC shows the position and altitude of the balloon, as provided by the ValBal communications system. This allows us to provide detailed information to the FAA and other viewers without overwhelming them with a vast quantity of potentially misleading data.

SSI Page

If you're logged in as a member of the space initiative or have an access code, you can view the full SSI page. This means that we have better control over our historical data and a variety of utilities.

Dashboard

This page has an overview of the flight so far. The first row has the current altitude, ascent rate, temperature, ballast drops, vents, and battery voltage, along with each of their changes since the last transmission and a graph of the last several data points. The next row contains a map of the most recent transmissions, and a map of the whole flight thus far. The third row has indicators for remaining ballast, cutdown state, and battery state. The fourth row consists of a graph displaying a couple of the most important metrics together.

Full Map

This page provides a full look at the flight so far, much larger than the version on the dashboard.

Transmissions

This is a table all parsed transmissions that have come in so far.

Send Message

This interface allows you to send messages to the balloon. In addition to having a place to enter the message, it shows the encoded version of the message and the cost to send. It requires both a set of rockblock credentials and to be logged in as an administrator. It then confirms with you before actually sending the message to avoid incorrect calls.

Sent Messages

This is just a table of all messages that have been sent to the balloon on this mission. Currently only administrators can view it.

SPOT Pages

These pages each have an embedded map showing where the spot GPS is. There are four, one for each SPOT.

Iridium Transmissions

This page provides a look at the raw, encoded version of the messages we have received from the balloon, in addition to some metadata that RockBlock provides us.

Iriridium Map

This map shows us the position of the balloon, based on where the Iridium Satellite Network thinks it is. It also shows a circle giving the estimated accuracy of the position. Given that this has very low acccuracy, typically close to 12km, this should only be used if all other positioning systems go down.

Predictor

This allows the user to run predictions on the balloon, from its current position, using manually input parameters of altitude and duration. If these parameters are not provided, it takes defaults from the last recorded position of the balloon. It then plots the prediction on the map, while keeping all prior predictions as well. One is able to remove these predictions with a clear button.

Charts and Graphs

This page allows the plotting of any values versus any other given values. For example, the user can pick an “X axis” value, where logical options might be time or distance from launch site, and can then plot any number of other values on the Y axis. This could include voltage, solar current, velocity, altitude, temperature, etc (nearly any valuable flight parameter).

Configuration

This is a page that takes a bunch of parameters and settings for operation of the mission. In general, it is just a form that allows admins to set things like the format of the message, the flight ceiling and floor, and the maximum ballast capacity that are used to understand what the transmissions really mean.