A message from SSEL director, Dave Klumpar. --Danny

A team of four students from SSEL's SpaceBuoy team travelled to Boulder, Colorado, recently to launch a high altitude balloon with several of SpaceBuoy's electrical subsystems.  Team members Adam Gunderson, Robert Buff, Chris Rossmith, and Dan Schwendtner spend several weeks leading up to the launch testing and integrating SpaceBuoy's Command and Data Handling (CDH) and Communications Subsystems into a 1.5 kg payload.

Despite several major setbacks, the flight was still a partial success and was a significant learning experience for the four participants as well as the SpaceBuoy team as a whole.  During final integration the radio transmitter stopped working, and, unknown to the SHOT participants, CDH suffered a memory error the night of the launch.  Although the payload did not record what was expected, it did record data that has proven very useful in preventing further problems, and the team learned several important lessons about integration and testing which they will be applying to the next payload they build.

The team is currently rebuilding the same mission payload and applying the lessons learned for a balloon launch in mid-July with the Borealis High Altitude Balloon Program at Montana State University.