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

The Convoluted Track of HASP

Well it is now official. This is the longest HASP flight ever! We have been in the air almost 21 hours, 19 of which were at float altitude, and we still have several more hours to go. The reason for this is the very indeterminate high altitude winds that occur during "turn-around" conditions. The figure on the right show the convoluted path HASP has taken while being pushed along by these winds. On the current heading we are going toward clear territory and will likely terminate somewhere between Tatum and Lovington in about 4 hours. We expect sun rise today at about 06:30 MDT and so should get some very nice views from CosmoCam during termination.

Sunset on HASP

HASP has been flying for over 12 hours and, so far, has about 10 1/2 hours at float. This flight promises to be a long one as we are in "turn around" conditions. However, the indeterminate winds can also be a problem. Up to about a 1/2 hour ago HASP was on a southwest track and heading straight for the White Sands Testing Ground. This is restricted airspace that is close to the U.S. border with Mexico. As we can not let the balloon cross into Mexico and the chase aircraft would not be allowed into restricted airspace we would need to terminate the flight in a few hours. Currently we are on a southeast to south track which is much better as it avoid the White Sands area.

Sun Rise, Moon Set

The HASP launch this morning took place very close to full moon. Thus, as we looked toward the east we could see the sun rise behind HASP hanging on the launch vehicle (left image). At the same time looking west the setting full moon could be seen (right image).

Montana and Colorado "Open Lids" Successful

The critical "opening" operation was successfully accomplished for both the Montana State University (MSU) and University of Colorado (UC) experiments. The MSU dust collection device has a two panel lid that must the opened in order to expose its dust collection plate. At 10:05 MDT the command was sent to heat the MSU servo motors. This command applies current to a set of heaters for 5 minutes in order to raise the motors to operating temperature. At the end of the heat cycle the motor temperatures were above 20 degrees C and the command to open the lid was transmitted. The open operation performed smoothly and the MSU experiment is now collecting data. The image on the left (provided by CosmoCam) shows the MSU experiment (far right) in the open state.

The University of Colorado imaging experiment includes a shield to prevent sunlight from directly entering their main telescope tube. This shield needs to be in place whenever the sun is above the horizon and below 30 degrees elevation. After 10:00 am the sun have risen high enough to not be a problem. Thus, at 10:24 MDT we issued the UC "OPEN" command and observed the success lifting of the solar shield. The image on the right shows the Colorado experiment with the shield in the open position. As the sun begins to set, we will need to close the shield later in the afternoon about 16:00 MDT and then reopen after sunset.

HASP at Float Altitude

HASP reached a float altitude of a bit more than 122,400 feet (37.3 km) at 09:36 MDT this morning. The image on the left is HASP shortly after launch this morning as it was climbing through about 8,000 feet. The image on the right is HASP at about 110,000 feet.

Now that we are at float we will be opening the Montana dust experiment lids and the Colorado telescope shield soon.

HASP Passed Through Tropopause

HASP is now climbing through 65,000 feet and should be above the tropopause. Thus, the minimum outside temperature should have been reached. The temperature will now increase until we get to float altitude.

HASP Proceeding through Climbout

HASP was launched at about 07:30 MDT and is now climbing through 15,000 feet (~4,800 m). We are expecting to go through minimum temperature of about -70 deg F at about 60,000 feet. Live video from HASP is available on the HASP or CosmoCam website. CosmoCam is now stowed for minimum temperature and looking at the Montana State University dust capture experiment.

LAUNCH

HASP has been launched!

Filling the Balloon

The balloon was laid out and filling has started. There is no turning back now; HASP will be launched within 30 minutes.

Waiting for launch

Roll out to the pad is complete and we have switched to battery power. All student payloads except for Colorado have been turned on and should be downloading data to the HASP website. Check all of your data and make sure it is OK. We will not power down again unless the launch is scrubbed. However, we may have data blackouts due to LOS outages.

Roll out

The post payload pickup checkout is complete. We have powered down all payloads and are now rolling out to the pad.

Post-payload Pickup

We are powering payloads 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10. Data should be available online momentarily. If the student group find a problem make sure you get to us ASAP. All other systems check out and we are completing the post-pickup checkout

Pick-up almost complete

HASP is now hanging on the "Big Bill" launch vehicle. The ballast hopper and crush pad have been attached, the VT experiment has been powered up, mini-SIP checkout is complete and the HASP checkout is almost done. The next event is roll out to the launch pad.

Pre-pickup Payload Check

We are powering payloads 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 for five minutes prior to pickup. Data should be available online momentarily. If the student group find a problem make sure you get to us ASAP. All other systems check out and we are completing the pre-pickup checkout

Pre-Launch Operations Commence

The HASP and CSBF crew have arrived on-site and we are starting the pre-launch checkout. This should go a bit faster than last time and we are expecting pickup to start at about 03:30 MDT

Next Launch Attempt Monday Morning

We just completed todays weather briefing. The forecast for a HASP launch tomorrow (9/15) morning (07:00 MDT) calls for surface winds of S-SE at 4-6 knots, low level winds S-SE at 11-13 knots and scattered to broken cloud cover. While the surface winds look fine the low level winds look marginal. However, the extended forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday does not look much better. Thus, we will be going for this launch attempt. We will show at the base at 03:00 MDT (09:00 UTC), pickup will be at 03:30 MDT and launch will be target for 07:00 MDT (13:00 UTC).

One very interesting part of the weather forecast was the high altitude (7 mbar to 5 mbar) winds. These have been disturbed by the passage of Ike and are somewhat in disarray. However, this may work to our advantage. In particular, the winds at Ft. Sumner will first take HASP north where it will then encounter winds that will take it west, then south and finally east. In fact, the predicted trajectory (see figure) takes us around in a circle for about 20 hours wil a impact about 62 nm SE of Clines Corners, New Mexico. We will see!

First launch attempt scrubbed

The low level winds did not cooperate today and we had to scrub the HASP launch attempt. Weather conditions for tomorrow do not look much better, so we are not even going to show. The next weather brief will take place at 14:00 MDT tomorrow (9/14). During this brief we will determine if Monday or Tuesday are possibilities