NMSS-03
Note: NMSS-03 was launchedafter NMSS-04 due to a numbering error
- Launch Date:March 29, 2014
- Launch Time: 8AM MST
- Launch Location: Just off I-25 and south of Belen, New Mexico: 34.410, -106.85
- Max altitude: 10,811 meters (35,470 feet) from APRS. Balloon was cut down by command
- Landing time: 9:54 MST
- Landing Location: 106.008, 34.31564 (about 30 miles south of Estancia, New Mexico
- Average ascent rate: 1.54 meters/sec (5 feet/sec)
- Average descent rate: 11.36 meters/sec (37 feet/sec, 25 MPH)
- Max horizontal speed: 58 MPH at 29,790 feet
- Flight Objective:
This flight was the first test of a commanded cut-down device controlled via a 2-meter up-link. The cut-down device was triggered at approximately 9:41AM MST at approximately 35,470 feet. Video of the cut-down test can be found below. This flight was not associated with any school. It was a test of NMSS infrastructure.
The initial ground test of the cut-down was conducted on January 19, 2014 by Kevin Nichols (KA7OFR)
10.5 mil dia Nichrome wire from a hair dryer
Nichrome wire was 1″ long, CD welded to two leads.
Fresh Duracell 9v battery, on 12″ clip leads.
Using same braided cord we use for balloons.
Weight was 10 lbs.
Took about 2 seconds between application of battery power to release.
- Manifest:
# ITEM MASS (g)
1 FLIGHT CONTROLLER/CUTDOWN 538.65
2 BALLOON 1200
3 CAMERA PACKAGE
4 PARACHUTE (.9M) 76.0
5 APRS BEACON #2 394.1
6 PAYLOAD TRAIN 20.0
7 UPPER REFLECTOR 99.23
8 VISUAL STROBE 136.08
9 AUDIO BEACON
10 CW BEACON 51.03
11 MOBUS CAMERA 53.87
12 CONTOUR CAMERA 144.58
13 FLIGHT COMPUTER 96.39
14 FOAM PACKAGING 476.28
15 MISC PACKAGE HARDWARE 124.74
16 STILL CAMERA 226.8
17 BATTERY PACK 198.45
18 CRES EXPERIMENT 1
19 CRES EXPERIMENT 2
- Flight Data: Processed APRS data from aprs.fi in CSV format
- Flight Path: Here is a Google Earth KML file
- Misc Pictures: Use slide show below to preview. Right click to view full resolution. NOTE: It may take a few seconds/minutes for all the pictures to load into the slide viewer)
