Lab 3: Construction of Balloon Mapping Equipment.

Introduction:

Data collection can take many forms, like researching for it in books and other published works, taking surveys, or actual field collection of it. Field collection of data is the most unique of these, however, because of the potential for error to occur while in the field, and having no resources or plan to fix the situation. To reduce this problem, whenever field methods are utilized, measures need to be taken to be as prepared as possible and try to take into consideration any mistakes that could be made. This lab involved the construction of a mapping platform and equipment that will be used to take highly detailed pictures of the balloon's trip from the ground level of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to the atmosphere, where the mapping platform will then be released and glide down to the Earth's surface with the assistance of a parachute. An example of the flight of the balloon can be seen by watching the video below.

This process certainly has many aspects that could go wrong, so careful preparation during the construction of the mapping platform and subsequent components is essential to ensuring that the data collected can actually be recovered and used.

Methods:

Figure 1: Parachute and accompanying materials

The balloon kit that we are going to use only consists of the physical balloon itself and related materials, as demonstrated in Figure 1. The rest of the mapping platform needed to be built by us. To successfully construct a mapping platform, a number of tasks needed to be completed. Below are a list of some of the things that needed to be done:

• Construction of mapping rig
• Construction of HABL rig
• Design of implementing continuous shot on cameras
• Recording of weights of any and all objects that could possibly be used in the mapping platform
• Parachute Testing
• Implementation and testing of tracking device
• Filling of balloon and securing it to the rig

Figure 2: Construction of the first mapping rig

The first step, the construction of the mapping rig, involves creating an apparatus that will house the digital camera, keeping it safe on its journey The website that sold the balloon suggested using the top of a two liter soda bottle for this, and then attach the camera to the inside of the housing, pointing down in continuous shot mode to capture all images. We decided to try to see what kind of product this process would produce, and the resulting contraption can be seen in Figure 2.
 String was used to secure the camera through the top of the bottle, with the lens pointing downward. In order to keep the camera shutter pressed down to engage continuous shot mode, rubber bands were used, illustrated in Figure 3.


Figure 3: Camera set up to maintain continuous shot mode

Figure 4: Construction of the second mapping rig

The issue with this kind of capsule is that the camera is at the whim of any directional movement, and could start spinning wildly, causing the quality of the images to suffer. A more secure houseing for the camera was necessary to produce the desired results, and we would not have known this without building the initial capsule first. To solve the stability problem, an entire two liter bottle was used. The camera would sit inside of the bottle and secured through with zip ties. The opening that the camera would be put through would then be covered, and the entire housing would be closed, a significantly more secure capsule than the one that was suggested in the instructions included with the balloon kit. This new mapping rig can be seen during the construction phase in Figure 4.


Figure 5: Construction of the HABL rig

The next step required creating the HABL rig, which would act as a sort of shock absorber, and would have to be made of a material that is sturdy enough to minimize damage. To do this, a styrofoam fishing bucket was used, due to its light weight and ability to store a significant number of items inside of it. Inside of the bucket, a piece of insulation was inserted, to act as an additional barrier. Construction of the HABL rig can be seen in Figure 5.

The third step involved careful documentation of all of the weights of anything that could be attached to the balloon. This essential part was necessary because after reaching optimal height, the parachute would be deployed, and the mapping platform would then descend to the Earth's surface. Having too much weight attached to the platform could cause the parachute to be ineffective, and have the platform crash to the ground, creating a very real possibility that the data collected by the camera would be damaged. Additionally, and principally, if the payload weighs too much, the balloon would not be able to achieve a high enough altitude, rendering the entire project worthless. A simple scale was used to register the weight, and then each object's value was recorded, with the table found in Figure 6 below. According to the website where the balloon was purchased, the HAB 1000, the balloon we will be using for the experiment, works the best when the payload ranges from two to four pounds, or 900-1800 grams. That value will have to be carefully paid attention to when we decide which of these items to include in the mapping platform.

Figure 6: Weight chart of objects

Balloon Mapping Weight Chart
Item	Weight
Balloon (Orange)	315.5 g
Balloon (Red)	322.25 g
Black rubber ring (~1 inch)	8.25 g
Camera (Biggest, black)	392.17 g
Carabineer (blue with key ring)	4.79 g
Carabineer (silver with loop)	26.71 g
Coke Bottle (2 liters, empty, whole with cap)	50.86 g
Coke Bottle (Top, Label "1")	18.6 g
Coke Bottle (Top, Label "2")	12.5 g
Handwarmers (2 in package)	54.37 g
Jif Peanut Butter (No cap, empty, whole)	48.6 g
Memory card (16 gb)	2.16 g
Memory card (32 gb)	2 g
Minno Thermo with lid and rope	75.85 g
Mt. Dew (2 liters, empty, whole with cap)	52.08 g
Orange Camera (No memory card)	185.77 g
Parachute (blue and orange)	144.7 g
Pink Rope (1 meter)	1.15 g
Rainex Bottle (Empty, whole with cap)	141.36 g
Rope (150 ft.)	416.51 g
Rubber band (black, midrange)	2.8 g
Rubber band (blue, thin, medium)	2.37 g
Rubber band (Extra small, orange)	1.14 g
Rubber band (long, tan, thin)	4.7 g
Rubber band (long, white, wide)	14.4 g
Rubber band (short, white, wide)	5.69 g
Rubber band (thin, white)	3.5 g
Silver Camera (No memory card)	187.5 g
Styrofoam (Pink, 1.5 by 19 by 17.5 in)	200.3 g
Yellow Cord with buckle	106.5 g
Zip Tie (Black)	1.5 g
Zip Tie (long, multicolored)	1.16 g
Zip Tie (Short, multicolored)	.31 g
7 Packs of Handwarmers	379.86 g
Cut Styrofoam+Minno Thermo	102.12 g
Green Bottle (With cannon, grey "Hindenburg")	239.69 g
Total Pay Load for High Altitude	944.34 g = Approx. 2.08 lbs

  


The next step after figuring out the weights of the objects was to test the parachute to see if two lbs of equipment would be a weight that would not be too heavy for it to support. To do this, the styrofoam fishing bucket that was going to be used for the HABL rig was filled up with a weight of two lbs, and dropped off of the fourth floor of Phillips Hall, as seen in the video in below. The parachute was able to effectively carry the target weight, and the stryofoam bucket was undamaged. 

The last step that needed to be done was to test the tracking device that was going to be attached to the mapping platform in order to make sure that the device was able to be recovered. A tracker was selected that would be able to be accessed through an Apple iPhone or iPad to provide for a convenient medium in which to display where the platform had landed after the balloon was deflated and the parachute had deployed. Depending on the wind on the day of the launch, the platform could land relatively closely to the launch area, or could be carried away many miles away, so an accurage GPS tracking device is absolutely essential to providing us with the location of the platform so that we could retrieve the images taken by the camera. To test this, one person would take the tracking device,and another would use either an iPhone or iPad to find them. This would simulate the search that will happen on launch day, and see the disparity between where the device says the tracker is, and where it actually is.

Discussion:

In order to have this process go as smoothly and quickly as possible, it was necessary to have multiple groups doing a different step. Some people assisted in parachute testing, others built the mapping and HABL rigs, others recorded weights of the objects, and still others tested the tracking device. If everybody only did one thing at a time, this testing would have taken considerably longer, and then all the tasks likely would not have been completed within the allotted amount of time. If this happened, not all of the issues would be taken into account, leading to more variables on launch day that could not be forseen and planned for, ultimately affecting the finished mapping project.

Conclusion:

This lab, while only allowing us to mostly do prepatory work, was absolutely vital to the future launch date when the balloon is actually launched. Conducting this kind of work beforehand may not be as exciting as the day when the balloon is launched, but to make sure that the project is a success and is issue-free, preparation is necessary. This activity required extensive teamwork, ensuring that every group extensively documented their methods and why it was important to the rest of the project as a whole. And the concept of taking time to examine a process from start to finish before actually going out in the field to do it was an important lesson to be addressed. So many things can go wrong in the field, and the more time taken beforehand to try to solve these problems leads to everything going better at the time that the field work is done.