Pegasus HAB Project

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.

• BH4 - landed in the Netherlands - has been recovered by PD3EM!
• BallastHalo 4 relaunch 20/2/10 15:00UTC from Churchill College
• BallastHalo 4 launch failed - insufficent lift meant did not take off and instead dragged the payload, we intercepted and burst the balloon, payload survived, flight has been postponed.
• BallastHalo 4 Launch 13/2/10 15:00UTC from EARS Cambridge, UK - forecast heading west towards Oxford the south passing over the channel at Portsmouth and then south into France - searching for radio listeners along flight path - please contact me if you want to help out jacoxon@googlemail.com
• Work is going well on BallastHalo 4
• BallastHalo 3 launched - travelled 419km and landed in France! Unfortunately tanks weren't tested properly so will try again with BallastHalo 4!
• Work has begun on BallastHalo 3, the Atlas flight computer has been constructed and have begun to breadboard the daughterboard - now have i2c and a temperature sensor working.
• Launched 2 flights over the weekend - BallastHalo 1 and BallastHalo 2 - the second flight managed to achieve float at ~27km alt for 7hrs 15mins! Next step is to test the ballast tanks in preparation for AtlanticHalo
• 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!

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.

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.

• Pegasus I
• Pegasus II
• Pegasus III
• Pegasus IV
• Pegasus V
• Pegasus Goliath
• Pegasus VI

Modular lightweight payload with simple GM862-GPS backup system (sms and morse radio) - allows for experimental payloads with the fallback tracker system. Once the basic system is complete and tested potential experiments include 2 way radio communications, video streaming, sunrise launches, etc.

• 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 - third attempt to test tanks

• Superbeacon Mk I

• 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

• 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