I had the privilege of helping with a high altitude balloon launch on a team for West Jackson Elementary School. The team was lead by Ben Probes and included teachers, parent volunteers, members of the West Jackson Fire Department, and Tricounty Amateur Radio Club.
The balloon was equipped with a camera, pressure and temperature sensors, an APRS beacon, and a Verizon GPS. I worked on the APRS beacon, which worked properly during testing, but apparently had a failure of the GPS receiver. As a result, the APRS radio packets did not contain GPS data and the Verizon GPS was used to recover the balloon.
I was out of town the morning of the launch, so I missed out on some of the fun, but I stayed in touch with Ben during the launch and recovery. It was a very cool project! Here is the video highlighting the launch:
The balloon was equipped with a camera, pressure and temperature sensors, an APRS beacon, and a Verizon GPS. I worked on the APRS beacon, which worked properly during testing, but apparently had a failure of the GPS receiver. As a result, the APRS radio packets did not contain GPS data and the Verizon GPS was used to recover the balloon.
I was out of town the morning of the launch, so I missed out on some of the fun, but I stayed in touch with Ben during the launch and recovery. It was a very cool project! Here is the video highlighting the launch: