Pegasus HAB Project

• Atlas3 - 11/11/11 - launched, floated for 30minutes at 36-37km, burst and dumped over North Sea, payload worked excellently
• Constructing the Atlas flight computer for a second floater launch May 2011
• Atlas launch 13/11/10 - Summary: great launch, gps fail, didn't float, crystal oven worked well, dumped into North Sea.
• Currently working on BallastHalo 6 - just finished designing the new flight computer and am currently doing some testing on maintaining the radio crystal temperature.
• BallastHalo 5 launched - landed in North Sea however ballast tanks worked.
• BallastHalo 5 Launch postponed until 10/07/10 @ 18:00UTC from Churchill College, Cambridge - latex floater to test ballast tanks.
• Pegasus VII launched 17/06/10 12:00BST - worked really well and was recovered nr Bedford - more info from UKHAS wiki Launch Page
• Pegasus VII launch Thurs 17/6/10 ~11:00BST from Churchill, Cambridge - follow on spacenear.us, RTTY and SSTV on 434.075Mhz - more info can be found here: UKHAS
• I'm at the moment involved with a project to try and cross the atlantic with a Zero Pressure ballon - Atlantic Halo, check it out!

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For more information about launching High Altitude Balloons in the UK visit the UKHAS wiki, join the UKHAS mailing list or go on to #highaltitude on irc.freenode.net

Gumstix based flights from 2005 - 2008, initially GSM only but then 434.650mhz, Pegasus VI downlinked SSTV images

• Pegasus I, Pegasus II, Pegasus III, Pegasus IV, Pegasus V, Pegasus Goliath, Pegasus VI, Pegasus VII, Pegasus VIII

GM862 GSM module based flight computers programmed in Python - had a number of problems with flights

• Overview, FHALP-1, FHALP-2, FHALP-3, Camera, Code

• HAPS-1

Trans-atlantic Project

• BallastHalo 1 & 2 - test various flight systems with pinhole latex floater,
• BallastHalo 3 - attempt to test ballast tank, floated to france - tanks not tested,
• BallastHalo 4 - second attempt to test tanks,
• BallastHalo 5 - float established, pump worked by sensor failed
• BallastHalo 6

• Atlas - 13/11/10
• Atlas2
• Atlas3 - 11/11/11
• Atlas4

• Super-pressure Atlas - tbd
• PicoAtlas 1
• PicoAtlas 2
• PicoAtlas 3
• PicoAtlas 4
• PicoAtlas 5

• Superbeacon Mk I

The Pegasus High Altitude Balloon project is a UK based amateur student run project that involves launching payloads to “Near Space” (flying between an altitude of 60,000ft (20km) and 115,000ft (35km)). This is achieved through the use of helium weather balloons which are designed to burst at a certain height and then the payload returns to earth via parachute.

At present we have launched five Pegasus missions:

• Pegasus I reaching 66,000ft and was successfully recovered,
• Pegasus II which is at present missing (probably having landed in the North Sea.)
• Pegasus III was a success.
• Pegasus V flew twice, the first flight was a success, the second landed in the sea just off the Norfolk Coast.
• Pegasus VI reached 31.4km and downlinked images via the radio using the SSTV protocol.

After the loss of Pegasus V the focus shifted to Firefly using Telit GM862-GPS modules.

• FHALP-1, contact was lost after launch and is assumed to have landed in the North Sea
• FHALP-2 even though contact was lost at apogee was returned by a member of the public.
• FHALP-3 contact again was lost however on landing the flight computer restarted and the payload was recovered from a field in Norfolk.

• HAPS-1, based upon the Gumstix Goliath was a picture taking mission, while there was some tracking difficulties the mission was a success with some amazing pictures and panoramics

Currently working on AtlanticHalo a trans-atlantic attempt, focusing on ballast tanks to maintain altitude over night so have launched the BallastHalo missions to test these flights with normal latex balloons.

• BallastHalo 1 - failed to achieve float
• BallastHalo 2 - floated for 7hrs 15mins, burst after sunrise, landed in tree - unrecoverable - proved float was possible with latex balloon.
• BallastHalo 3 - floated for 2hrs, failed to test ballast tanks as secondary board crashed - recovered from N France.
• BallastHalo 4 - ballast pump turned on, interfered with GPS, no float - recovered from the Netherlands.

Due to restrictions in the HAM licence in the UK the typical frequencies can not be used, instead we use GSM and also licence exempt frequencies mainly 434mhz at 10mW. The GSM doesn't work above about 3000ft however is extremely reliable once the payload has landed while the radio allows us to track the payload throughout the flight.

Image from the Pegasus III flight showing the moon.

For images from the memory card of the cameras (better quality) check out my flickr account.

• Tracking Data (from my ground station)
  • Nova6 - 23/07/08 (from London)
  • Nova7 - 25/07/08 (from London
  • Nova8/HAPS-D - 29/08/08 (from Bildeston, Suffolk)
  • Nova9 - 01/12/08 (from London)
  • Icarus II - 03/01/09 (from London)
  • Nova 11 - 02/04/09 (from London)
• The Unofficial Gumstix Bible
• Ideas
• Links

• Online Tracking

• M6JCX Online Radio Receiver - Not always online.

• Notes
• CNC Hotwire Cutter
• rtl-sdr on Mac OS X with Linrad

• Please get in touch if you have any jobs or projects that need doing regarding embedded linux (especially using Gumstixs), GPS modules, GSM modules (including the Telit GM862). jacoxon@googlemail.com