HASP Flight Terminated After More Than 30 Hours

The HASP flight was finally terminated today (9/16/2008) at 23:23:33 UTC. This flight lasted about 31.8 hours with about 30 hours at float. The recovery crew is on-site and has the parachute in visual range. Impact should be with the next few minutes and I expect HASP will be returned to the Fort Sumner balloon base sometime tomorrow.

I wish to thank all the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility personnel who, as usual, provide exceptional support for the HASP students and team and, in addition, who have provided a spectacular flight that I'm sure none of us will forget very soon.

Preparation for Termination

All payloads, except 10, were powered down at about 16:00 MDT today. We also worked with the MSU group to close payload 10 as best we can. CosmoCam batteries are very weak and it is currently off. If you attach to the video stream you will therefore get static. However, we pointed the camera to the balloon and will turn it back on just before the terminate command is executed. The view of HASP falling away from the balloon should be quite spectacular. Watch for it!

Revised Termination

The revised termination time is 16:30 MDT. We will begin shutting payload down about 16:00 MDT

Termination Targeted for 16:00 MDT

CSBF is going to try to land HASP in a valley just west of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It is estimated that termination should occur at about 16:00 MDT today. We will power down payloads and close the Montana experiment (payload 10) starting at about 15:30 MDT.

HASP Still at Float

It may be 4 to 6 hours before we can safely terminate HASP. The balloon is passing over very rough terrain and still traveling very slowly. While wandering aimlessly through the desert, however, we might as well do something productive. The Montana experiment has remained open since about 10:10 MDT yesterday and now has about 28 hours of exposure. We also powered experiments 4, 5, 6, and 9 back on at about 09:50 MDT this morning (after turning all payloads except 10 off at about 07:00 MDT), giving these payloads about 25.7 hours. All other payloads accumulated about 21.4 hours.

HASP is now out of ballast and, therefore, will not be able to keep altitude during sun set. Thus, I would imagine that one way or the other HASP will be down on the ground by early this evening.

Powering Some Payload Back On

HASP is currently in a part of New Mexico (near Carlsbad) where there are few optimum landing sites. Thus, it may be a while before HASP is terminated. We have turned payloads 4, 5, 6, and 9 back on.

Starting Termination

HASP's loop-de-loop track is still giving us trouble. We received word that CSBF would terminate the HASP flight at 07:15 MDT this morning. Thus, we began the shutdown process. This included powering off payloads 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11 at about 06:58 MDT. In parallel, we were heating the Montana servo motors, which were cold soaked overnight to about -60 degrees F. Getting the servos above 0 deg F, took three 5 minute heat cycles and I was just about ready to send the "close lid" command, when the terminate was aborted. Apparently our descent vector on parachute was getting too close to a set of power lines and the termination was put off for about two hours. Currently, all student payloads are off except for the Montana experiment (payload 10). In addition, the CosmoCam batteries are very low in charge, so CosmoCam has been powered off for now. We will review the situation again at about 08:30 MDT