An open source toolkit for the tracking, termination and recovery of high altitude balloon flights and payloads

Clark, P.; Funk, M.; Funk, B.; Funk, T.; Meadows, R.E.; Brown, A.M.; Li, L.; Massey, R.J.; Netterfield, C.B.

Abstract

We present an open source toolkit of flight-proven electronic devices which can be used to track, terminate and recover high altitude balloon flights and payloads. Comprising a beacon, pyrotechnic and non-pyrotechnic cut-down devices plus associated software, the toolkit can be used to: (i) track the location of a flight via Iridium satellite communication; (ii) release lift and/or float balloons manually or at pre-defined altitudes; (iii) locate the payload after descent. The size and mass of the toolkit make it suitable for use on weather or sounding balloon flights. We describe the technology readiness level of the toolkit, based on over 20 successful flights to altitudes of typically 32,000 m.

Citation

Clark, P., Funk, M., Funk, B., Funk, T., Meadows, R., Brown, A., Li, L., Massey, R., & Netterfield, C. (2019). An open source toolkit for the tracking, termination and recovery of high altitude balloon flights and payloads. Journal of Instrumentation, 14(04), Article P04003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/14/04/p04003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 29, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2019
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Apr 10, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 8, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Instrumentation
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 04
• Article Number: P04003
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/14/04/p04003
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1299055
• Related Public URLs: http://arxiv.org/abs/1904.04321