I’ve been looking at some of the previous journal entries and there are a few things that I left a bit too open ended and unanswered. After more research and a better understanding of how everything fits together, I can answer the “danglers” with more confidence than before. Continue reading “Reflection”
Video Logs
I’ve been thinking about the logging process of the class 12 project, and I think it will be a good idea to start video recording everything when I’m working.
This will mostly be whenever I launch one of my missions, and everything before and during it. I will be recording video from the balloon itself, but I also want to record all the events that happen on the ground, such as running the predictor software before the flight, then setting up all the equipment needed to make the mission work, all while giving commentary. Continue reading “Video Logs”
Publicity
I’ve been thinking a lot about the funding for the project, and when looking at crowdfunding campaigns, I noticed that school projects and personal projects did not receive many funds, mainly because no one knew about them. This got me thinking about publicity and advertising. If I want more people to see my project, I will need to go public. But I am not very good at that. I usually keep everything close to me and only share with my close friends and family, but if this is going to work, I will have to open myself up to the world. Continue reading “Publicity”
An Octagonal Design
I’ve been thinking a lot about what Rian said. I need to find a way to retrieve my camera. I thought about using a drone, or a glider chassis, but the former cannot hold the weight and the latter is too heavy. Other high altitude balloonists have put parachutes on their housing and then tracked its fall and driven to its set down location. However, their launches were in areas that were completely flat, in other words not Cape Town. So I have come up with a design, which turns the camera rig into a housing and a glider. It works similar to Elon Musk’s Falcon rockets: it uses fins to guide the rig back to where it needs to go by directing airflow through the grids and using accelerometers and GPS to tell the fins how to go. Continue reading “An Octagonal Design”
The Meeting…
Wow. Just wow. Rian is really amazing! The meeting went really well and he is looking forward to becoming my mentor! We started the meeting with me introducing myself and the current situation and then moved on to some of the questions. Continue reading “The Meeting…”
Meeting Finalized
I received a reply from Rian today saying that the meeting will be at 11am at Mug ’n Bean in Constantia Village on Sunday. I will be away on a Scout camp in Wellington then, so I will have to leave early on Sunday morning in order to get back in time. Continue reading “Meeting Finalized”
First Contact
Wednesday afternoon and still no word from Rian. I sent him a message to check up and see if he was going to contact me or if he had forgotten. I gave him my email address and he promptly mailed me to see if I was available this weekend. I replied asking him if we could set up our first meeting for Sunday, but I got no reply. Continue reading “First Contact”
The Rig Guy
I have been giving some thought to the rig, which will hold the cameras and the housing, and how it will work. When researching online for rigs used in High Altitude Ballooning, online, I found that no one uses them, which got me thinking that I might have been going about this all wrong. Perhaps the rig is not needed at all, as I could just store the cameras in the housing, which would become the payload. However, I am not ready to shut down that avenue of opportunity just yet. Continue reading “The Rig Guy”
I Have a Mentor
Today I finally contacted Rian! Phew. This has been the hardest part of the project so far. When I told him about the project over the phone, he said it sounded very interesting and that he was keen to help! He also told me that he should be more than qualified to help me in this field, as his department at the weather station sends weather balloons up twice a day, so he should be able to help me streamline my process. Continue reading “I Have a Mentor”
Crowdfunding
After a brief shock to the system due to ridiculous camera prices, I thought maybe crowdfunding wasn’t a bad idea and perhaps it was worth a deeper look. My pessimism quickly turned to optimism and I started researching away at all the options. After a few hours I have found many sites that I could possibly use. The sites that I have currently are: Continue reading “Crowdfunding”