Amateur Near Space Exploration

1
Amateur Near Space Exploration

• The Poor Mans Space Program

2
The Near Space Stack

• Weather Balloon
• Load Line
• Recovery System
• Tracking Module(s)

3
A Typical Near Space Mission

• Flight and Weather Prediction
• Flight Readiness Review
• Filling and Close Out
• Launch
• Chase
• Recovery
• Lunch!

4
The Near Space Environment

• Pressure 75 mb and falling
• Temperature -40 degrees and climbing
• Cosmic Ray Flux 300 counts/ccsec
• Skies Black
• Horizon gt 300 miles away and curved!

5
Past Experiments

• Weather Station (sonde)
• Geiger Counter
• Photometer
• Geomorphology
• Astronomy
• Technology Testing
• Life Sciences

6
FAR 101

• The FAAs Rules On Balloons, Kites, And Rockets
• Keep weight to a maximum of 12 pounds
• No module more than 6 pounds
• Use a recovery system
• Permission of air space owner

7
Information/Resources

• Nuts and Volts (odd months)
• Nutsvolts.com (weekly blog)
• Amateur Television Quarterly
• The Citizen Scientist
• NearSys.com
• Near Space Book (Parallax.com)

8
Will Launch Balloons for Food