ASTRO-12
Post-Flight Summary
The ASTRO-12 mission involved several goals:
Test of a new ruggedized Balloon Borne Ionization Chamber (BBIC)
Use of a Pentax fisheye lens with a 169deg lateral field of view on the Pentax k10d camera system
Use of a new 120in parachute system to reduce landing speed
Testing of new tracking and real-time prediction software developed by ASTRO.
ASTRO-12 also involved several "firsts" in terms of recovery:
First viewing of the balloon at over 98,000 ft. with the naked eye by the entire recovery team
First images of the balloon from the ground by the recovery crew
First viewing of the burst, and video taping by Harry Mueller
Longest recovery (Launch at 9:04 and recovery after 4:00 pm.)
Flight info:
Peak Altitude: 98,514 ft.
Top speed: 62 mph at 44,079 ft.
Straight-line distance: 42 miles
Satellite View of Landing Location
Recovery Team:
Andy Arena OSU Professor, MAE
Eric Benton OSU Professor, Physics
Joe Conner OSU PhD Student, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Carl Johnson OSU PhD Student, Physics
Cassie Latino OSU BS Electrical and Computer Engineering student
Andy Lau OSU PhD Student, Physics
Seong-Jin Lee OSU PhD Student, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Harry Mueller Oklahoma Research Balloons, Tulsa, OK
The flight was launched on December 11 at 9:04am local time
Carl Johnson preparing the BBIC for insertion into the protective payload box.
Andy Arena and Seong-Jin Lee beginning to inflate the balloon
Andy Arena and Eric Benton nearing completion of helium fill
The team preparing the payloads. From top to bottom: Parachute, parachute ring, secondary tracking system, primary tracking system, high-resolution Pentax camera system, BBIC.
Launch!
The Recovery Team watching the balloon as it crosses through 98,000 ft. The balloon could be seen from the ground. Location of the team at the time was just south of Stroud, OK.
Picture of the balloon from the ground. Balloon was over 98,000 ft, and 10 miles downrange. (Photo taken with Pentax k20d camera with lens at max. 250mm zoom.)
200% crop of the above image. Note that even the payload train is slightly visible.
Interesting country bridge crossed on the way to the recovery site.
Entry to the basin where the payloads were located. Note the dense vegetation.
Harry Mueller taking his turn with the axe to the tree holding the payloads.
Land owner Shaman Branscum takes a chain saw to the second tree holding the first from falling
Payload finally beginning to fall
Joe Conner and Andy Arena recovering all the parts of the payload train.
A successful recovery: Joe Conner, Harry Mueller, Shaman Branscum (land owner), and "Jake"
Pictures were taken with a Pentax k10d with a 10-17mm fisheye at 10mm.
Oklahoma State University campus and city of Stillwater from 3,808 ft
View from 20,896 ft. Note the airplane and contrail at top.
Picture from 73,809 ft.
The view of the Earth and the Sun from 98,514 ft. just before burst.
A "defished" version of the above photo. 98,514 ft.
92,479 ft. just after burst and initial fall. Black chord at the bottom is an electrical cable.
Just prior to landing. Note the balloon remnant.
Touchdown in the tallest tree in the area. Note the BBIC in the foreground.
Video of balloon burst, seen from the ground by Harry Mueller.
Harry Mueller took this video of the balloon burst from over 10 miles downrange. Video of this type is rare. Andy Arena also observed the burst with binoculars.