Category:High Altitude Balloons

High Altitude Balloons
Part of the High Altitude Balloons series
Team Goals
Altitude Control Research
Balloon Culture & Tradition
What Is it? Breakfast Lunch Release BonfiresOvernight Launches
Important Concepts
Balloon MechanicsAtmospheric ConditionsAltitude ControlGPS Flight ModeHeating & ThermalCommunications
Core Architecture
Gen 1 Architecture HONEY
Core Software
STINGR
Core Avionics
Oscar Cookie Monster Medusa Elmo The Count Kermit
Core Power
Apple Turnover Biscuit Cupcake
Core Peripherals
Macaw Cobra Viper QueenBee ProtoBee
ValBal Avionics
Gen 1 Gen 2 Gen 3 Gen 4
ValBal
Mk 1 (adVENTurer) Mk 2 (VENTuri) Mk 3 (Voyager) Mk 4 (Ivy)
Projects
Sol UV X SPACE habmc HABEES
Lore & Chronicles
The Puerto Rico IncidentThe Surprise EquilibrationThe Mountain ClimbersThe Little ZPB That CouldThe Balcony Bonanza
Launch Sites
Laird ParkBrigantino Park
VE
A photo of the edge of space, taken by SSI-23, Gemini

The Balloon team constructs and launches high altitude Zero Pressure Balloons (ZPBs) with experimental payloads. To date, the team has launched and recovered nearly 100 high altitude balloons to as high as 120,000 feet with thermal controls, satellite communication, and scientific payloads. They have launched a balloon all the way across the Atlantic Ocean from California, and are currently working to enable balloons to fly even further. The Balloons Team Faculty Advisor is Dr. John Pauly.

Balloon payloads are launched with state-of-the-art equipment constantly re-envisioned by the team. Recent additions include altitude control mechanics for ZPBs, including a gas venting valve and ballast dispenser, as well as a custom flight control system, two-way satellite communications, an intelligent altitude control algorithm, autonomous guided payload recovery and more. The goal of the team is to push the bounds on its current High Altitude Balloon (HAB) flight hardware, both in terms of flight time and flight distance.

The current team co-leads are

SlackLogo.png@Michael Yu  and SlackLogo.png@Luis Arizmendi 

The co-leads in 2022-23 were SlackLogo.png@Rohan Sanda  and SlackLogo.png@Jack Bernardo . The co-leads in 2021-22 were SlackLogo.png@Matthew Tan  and SlackLogo.png@Janice Teoh . The co-leads in 2020-21 were Aditeya Shuka (SlackLogo.png@Adi ) and Sathya Edamadaka (SlackLogo.png@sathya ). The co-leads in 2019-20 were Sydney Marler (SlackLogo.png@smarler ) and Jason Kurohara (SlackLogo.png@jason kurohara ).

The core of the Balloons team is a set of long-term technical projects. Current projects include:
Cycloon, which aims to harness altitude control technology and the unique advantages of a balloon platform to study tropical cyclogenesis.
HABSIM, a GEFS-based trajectory prediction server and an associated Python package enabling predictions and optimizations on custom profiles.
Spaceshot, which aims to launch a rocket off a high-altitude balloon to reach space.
HABMC, the balloons team mission-control software, a powerful web-app that provides real-time data, analytics, and controls of balloon flights.
Balloonerang, which aims to build a payload which autonomously glides to a predetermined recovery site.


Previous projects include:
ValBal, a long-endurance, low-cost latex balloon altitude-maintenance platform that holds multiple world records for endurance, and has flown as far as Morocco.
HABEES, the balloons project team responsible for all balloons standard-profile electronics, RF, and flight software systems.
habhive, the balloons mechanical-engineering project team, responsible for development of payload structures & novel mechanical projects to be flown on balloons.

The balloons team is committed to openness and diversity in projects; project teams serve to facilitate member interests and novel new ideas and propositions; talk to the balloon co-leads or the relevant project leads if you have an awesome idea you'd like to try out!


Valballogo.png Habeeslogo.JPG Habhivelogo.png Habmclogo.png


Balloon Launches
2014-15 SSI-19202122
2015-16 SSI-23(a) • 2425262728293031323334353637383940414243
2016-17 444546474849505152
2017-18
2018-19 8386879091
2019-20 929397
VE

Subcategories

This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.