HOW TO: Send a GoPro to Space!

three two one let go [Music] what's going on guys it's Landon back with another video and this one's a bit overdue so last year I uploaded a video of a weather balloon launch at the Arnold High School engineering Club which I was a part of did and our balloon hit 90 thousand feet but what we were not expecting was how many views the video got it ended up getting 4.6 million views with a lot of you requesting a how-to on how to launch a weather balloon so that's what I'm gonna talk about today I'm gonna show you how to launch your very own high-altitude weather balloon up to heights of 120,000 feet so first things first how does a weather balloon work well you have three main components with every weather balloon launch you have your payload you have your parachute and you have your weather balloon so let's talk about the payload the payload is what's gonna house all of your equipment whether that be your GPS tracker your GoPros your extra battery packs any sensors you decide to send up to track air pressure etc your payload is what's gonna house all of that equipment and typically what you can use is a foam cooler so what we used win a life foam foam cooler we bought it at Dollar General and it was about two dollars and it got the job done perfectly the next thing that you need is the parachute that's the next major component and the way that the parachute works is you have your payload at the bottom of the parachute and you'll have you you have your weather balloon attached to the top of the parachute and the way that that works is as the weather balloon is pulling up on that payload which is pulling down due to gravity it pulls that parachute tight and closed so it stays closed as it goes up into the atmosphere and it is about the most effective solution you can go with when launching a weather balloon as the balloon goes up and up and up and up into the atmosphere the helium will continue to expand because the air pressure in the upper atmosphere is lower so the helium is free to push more on the walls of that balloon and stretch it out as the balloon reaches its maximum bursting altitude it bursts it pops and that's actually what causes it to come back down once that balloon pops your parachute is now free to expand or open and catch all that air as it floats gently back down to the ground now let's talk equipment specifics we decided to go with four GoPro cameras which we actually had to drop that down to two due to some issues on launch day but you can go with that as many cameras as you like as long as you stay below the magic four pound payload weight limit that is what the FAA dictates as a safe weight limit for weather balloon launches and as long as you have below that limit you are free to perform weathermen launches so along with those cameras which you definitely want to securely mount to your payload we actually custom-made brackets and 3d printed them in fusion 360 and you can see them bolted right here on the front as well as on the top and that was very effective I'll post those CAD models down below for those of you with the same model cameras so you can 3d print those and use those on your own launch if you want but as long as your cameras are secure which you can use anything from duct tape to electrical tape as long as it's mounted tightly in that foam then you're good to go now the other main piece of equipment that we used in our payload was a spot gen3 gps tracker now we decided to go with a spot gen3 because it's satellite based and you may be wondering could I pop a SIM card into a burner phone and throw that in the payload and use that as a GPS tracker well technically no that's illegal even if it was not illegal the about the 20,000 30,000 foot mark that GPS tracker and that phone stops receiving signal but the satellite based GPS trackers like the spot Gen 3 can go up to 120 thousand feet or higher and they still receive that GPS connection and are capable of sending that back to you which is important because that's what you're using to get your payload back so that's what we went with but the downside is that you have to make sure the top of that tracker is always facing the sky because it is satellite based and you want to make sure it is as unobstructed as possible so make sure that you mount that tracker to the very top of your payload now the third and also really important piece of equipment that you want to include in your payload is extra battery packs for your GoPros now our launch was two and a half hours long you can actually go and I'll put the link down to our launch video in the description but it was two and a half hours long and the GoPros that we had included would not have lasted nearly long enough to capture that whole flight so you want to make sure you include some backup battery packs just portable power packs that you can keep plugged up into your GoPros rather than yet so that pretty much covers it what you need in your payload you know pretty much you just need your cameras your backup battery packs and your GPS tracker however there are additional electronics you can put inside your payload to capture things like air pressure and magnet Magnum 'try readings and accelerometers and gyroscopes and whatever else you can think of there are little mini flight computers that you can put inside your payload but we decided not to do that just because of cost it was already expensive as it was to launch this this project now let's talk about the parachute more in depth so when you get your payload all put together everything in there all your duct tape and your rope and everything tied together you want to make sure you get an accurate measurement for the weight of the payload down to the ground and the reason for this is because in order to calculate how much parachute you need you need to know the weight of that payload and I've included a link down to the calculator that we actually used the parachute calculator for our launch it was super handy and effective and it tells you exactly the diameter parachute that you need for your launch to get the optimal landing speed we used a four-foot diameter square parachute because that's what our calculator called for but you may use a different parachute in your launch it all depends on the weight of your payload but I've included a link down in the description for the parachute that we bought as well in case you want to check that one out and and kind of get a feel for what you should be looking for in terms of weather balloon parachutes now let's talk about the main aspect of this launch the weather balloon itself so we actually bought our weather balloon on high altitude science comm it was a 600 gram weather balloon and it was $55 and we had to buy two and I always recommend that everybody buy two copies if you will of a weather balloon that way in the event that one of them gets damaged you have another one on launch day because anything from the oil on your hands to a blade of grass if you're not careful enough can damage that weather balloon on launch day and you'll end up having to postpone launch and wait for another weather balloon to come in if you don't already have one on hand so I'll put the link down in the description to that balloon as well but you also want to make that you get the right size weather balloon they have sizes ranging from 300 grams to 600 grams all the way up to 1500 gram weather balloons and you want to make sure you get the right size for your payload so in order to calculate how much helium and the size of the balloon that you need we actually used a calculator by that same company it was the balloon ascent rate calculator I've included a link in the description for that as well and that will tell you exactly how many cubic feet of helium you need for your launch what size weather balloon you need and what your estimated bursting altitude will be so if you play your cards right you can actually get an estimated bursting altitude of up to a hundred and twenty thousand feet but you also have to take into consideration that that means that it will land a further distance away the trajectory will be less accurate in terms of where it's going to land and you'll have to drive further to go pick it up but that calculator is super versatile it was super handy and I've included a link in the description for that as well so you can use that in your own project now let's talk about launch day so you've gotten you your supplies together you know exactly what equipment is going into your payload you know how many cameras are in there you know the weight of your payload you know the parachute that you need the balloon that you need you know everything that you that you need and you already have it put together ready to go but where do you launch from so you want to shoot for a spot that is pretty free from power lines from trees from anything that may obstruct that balloon as it's going on so you want to shoot for a very open environment we actually launched from the third floor of the ATC building here at Gulf Coast State College and Panama City Florida so after you isolate a launch location you want to use a trajectory planner to make sure that your balloons not gonna land in the Gulf of Mexico like ours almost did so after you figure out what your ascent rate is what your decent rate is and what your balloon estimated bursting altitude is which you can use both of those those calculators I mentioned before to determine you go to this trajectory planner that I've put down in the link in the description below and it'll tell you a rough estimate up to seven days in the future of what kind half your balloon will follow so it'll tell you what it'll follow as it goes up into the upper atmosphere it'll tell you where it bursts at what location it's above when it bursts and it'll give you an estimated landing location ours was actually very accurate in terms of where it was going to land however the reason it was slightly off is because on launch day we did not correctly understand the regulator that we needed for our helium tank so we had a regulator on our tank that was not rated for the pressure that our tank was putting out so we were actually leaking helium through the safety valve and losing the helium that we needed for our the lift of our balloon so in order to compensate we had to take out our 3d printed Tesla Roadster that we were gonna to send to space and we had to take out two of our extra GoPros fortunately we hit just the weight that we needed to follow about that same trajectory except it was still a little bit lighter for the parachute so because of that we forgot to compensate for that and our balloon almost landed in the Gulf of Mexico which you can actually see the ocean in our video as the balloon is dropping closer and closer to the ground so you want to make sure you get that trajectory accurate with an accurate weight of your payload and accurate ascent rate and accurate descent rate and an accurate bursting altitude which you can use those calculators in the description to calculate all of that for you now let's talk about preparing your payload for launch so instead of just throwing your stuff in a cooler and sending it up you want to take some precautions to make sure that one it's visible to anybody looking for it and two people actually know what the heck it is when they find it if they don't know that you're doing a weather balloon launch so what you always want to make sure you do is put your contact information on the outside of your payload so what we did is we explained that it was not dangerous we explained it was just a project for a local high school and we put two phone numbers on there that way they had two options of contact to get in touch with us if they were to run across our payload another precaution you want to take is to make sure you cover your payload in a highly visible color we just used orange neon orange duct tape and we just wrapped it up as you can see and that increased the visibility of our payload when we were looking for it in the woods now let's talk about preparing and handling your weather so whether balloons are actually very delicate if you touch them too much without gloves on the oils on your hands can cause the latex to deteriorate and you'll end up getting a slightly lower bursting altitude so you want to make sure you're wearing latex gloves and you want to make sure that you keep that weather balloon away from any sharp objects that's why I recommend that everybody who performs a weather balloon launch lay out a tarp or a tablecloth of some sort on the ground to keep that from happening to keep that balloon from coming into contact with anything that could deteriorate it prior to launch so at this point your weather balloons should be ready to go you have your payload with the electronics on the inside your camera is set to record make sure you hit the record button we almost did not and you have your contact information on the outside you have that connected to your parachute which is also connected to your inflated weather balloon now it's just a matter of actually launching your weather balloon and putting all your hard work to to action so you want to make sure that you're very careful with how you're handling your weather balloon obviously again make sure you're out in a very open area unobstructed without any trees or power lines or anything like that and you should be free to launch so after you make sure that you are gonna follow a good trajectory and it's not going to land anywhere like the middle of a National Forest or the ocean then you can let go and then as your balloon is floating up and up and up into the atmosphere you can log into your spot account and track your your current location the current location of your balloon about every five minutes you can actually set that ping that your GPS tracker sends out to 2 minutes 5 minutes or 10 minutes we just set ours to 5 because it was a good mid ground between saving battery and getting accurate and quick updates in terms of the location of the the payload and now it's just a matter of waiting so after we launched our weather balloon we decided to go ahead and start heading to the estimated landing location because there's no point waiting around when you already know about where it's gonna land anyway you're also getting those live updates from your GPS tracker so you can you know make sure verify that it's about following that same trajectory that you had planned so it landed about two hours away in st. Mark's Wildlife Refuge in Florida and we'll call off Florida and by the time we had gotten there it was already about three or four o'clock I think so you want to make sure that you launch early in the day we were unable to get at that same day after we had driven out there because of how deep in the woods it had landed but fortunately the Rangers out at that refuge were able to get that down for us and they were a huge help so again huge thanks to the McCullough Wildlife Refuge st. Mark's and we'll kala we could not have done it without them but yeah so that's something you want to take into consideration when you're launching is about where it's gonna land how are you gonna get to it those precautions etc no I do want to leave you with a few important notes before you launch make sure you coordinate with any local airports Air Force bases Navy bases make sure you just give them a call and let them know that you're about to launch this this blue one as long as you're following all of the FAA regulations you're not breaking any walls so they shouldn't tell you no but as a courtesy it's good to make sure you call the airports and make sure that they're aware of your launch and about when you're going to launch again I've included all of the equipment that we use for our launch I've included links to that down in the description below as well as links to some some important FAA information and those three calculators that we had used for trajectory for the balloon burst altitude and for the parachute descent rate I've included all that in the description below and that should get you started in terms of figuring out how to plan your weather balloon launch now the most important aspect to remember when doing this project is to make sure you have fun with it it's a lot of fun learning about how to launch a weather balloon there's a lot of science involved and it's a great project for middle schoolers and high schoolers or even college students who just want to have some fun on a on a weekend I highly recommend coordinating with schools that way you can get your helium paid for because that is the most expensive aspect of the project is that helium but most of the time you can win those tanks so I highly recommend that anybody even slightly interested in launching a weather balloon do so because it's a lot of fun you won't regret it and you learn a lot in the process if you have any questions or comments about this process or you want to clear up anything make sure you leave a comment down below because I'm sure that there's something that I missed in this video if there is I will try and get back to you as quick as possible because I just want to encourage everybody to go out and do this project because it's a lot of fun and I know you won't regret it now I do want to leave you guys on this one final note you will run into problems working on this project we ran into so many issues it's hard to even remember how many problems we had ranging from drones crashing into pillars on launch day to running out of helium to almost landing in the Gulf of Mexico at one point I had called a local Navy base and told them that we were planning on launching a weather balloon with payload with cameras and they thought I was talking about bombs and that was an interesting experience but that's all a part of the learning process that's what makes this project so fun and so exciting is that you have to learn these new things and you will run into these problems but when you solve them it's a very gratifying experience on but thank you guys for watching I will leave you with some fun clips of our weather balloon make sure you hit that like button and that subscribe button I'll be back for more I've been gone for a while over the past year just with classes and getting a new job it was just a lot but I'm gonna try and put more videos out I do appreciate you guys as patience with that but I also don't like posting videos and less I'm absolutely sure that the the content is where I want it to be at you know I want to make sure I cover all the bases so you know I appreciate you you guys for that and and I will see you in the next one [Music] doesn't look at all them chickens

Channel: Landon McCoy

Views: 16,071

Rating: 4.8043847 out of 5

Keywords: weather balloon, gopro, space, howto, tutorial

Id: WVH6OsUyVIk

Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 26 2019