HALONSC

[NMarkis]

Hello everyone, I'm introducing everyone to our( home school students) pre-undergraduate research project.

It's called HALONSC, which stands for High Altitude Low Opening Near Space Capsule. A new approach of systems engineering on
near space payloads.

The basic outline of the whole project is to design a payload that deploys its parachute at a lower altitude to reduce drift. As we live in South Florida, drifting into the Atlantic is a very real thing indeed. We're currently working on the internal structure of the capsule, and the implementation of flight electronics. I can talk to any of you who wish to know more, but as we have been working on it quite aggressively, I(Or any one else in fact.) has not have time to really finish a formal overview of the project.



Here's our recently started blog:
http://halonsc.wordpress.com/
And Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/High-Alt ... 5055227885


Any type of inquiry is permitted.

[KI9L]

Keep it up Nick!

[NMarkis]

Hello guy's, it has been a while since I've posted here. But I have written an official overview of the project, and exported it into a .pdf file. If you like to see it, I can E-mail it to you.


Thanks,
Nick

[tstowe]

drifting into the Atlantic is a very real thing

Welcome to my world.

Hello guy's, it has been a while since I've posted here. But I have written an official overview of the project, and exported it into a .pdf file. If you like to see it, I can E-mail it to you.

Heck yeah! Send it to todd.stowe@beaufort.k12.sc.us

[tstowe]

Have you thought about something like a cutdown device to deploy a parachute? Instead of heating a nichrome wire to burn through the main line, it opens a box with a spring loaded lid that has a parachute inside?

Or use an altimiter to trigger something like what they use to deploy the parachute on model rockets? I'd contact Ky Michaelson, a.k.a. the Rocketman (http://www.the-rocketman.com/content12.html). He's been making rockets and parachutes for rockets for a long time.

[NMarkis]

The balloon cut-down mechanism is actually a little eccentric to the norm. It's a "Square Toroid" with a thickness of maybe 4-6mm. This ring has 8 strands of kevlar that connect at equal distances to each other on the ring, then connected to one main line to the balloon. This is therefore called the "Balloon Tension Rejection Ring". A fitting where the capsule houses the parachute will also be the connection point of the BTRR with the Inner Diameter being close(0.6mm) to the Outer Diameter of the housing, it fits over, and connects to spring loaded latches. The latches are restricted from movement due to a servo controlled push-rod, that would retract from the space and allowing those latches to retract inward. The design complication with this is that ALL forces are transferred through these latches. So engineering them to work correctly and keep the balloon where it needs to be is a tad important. Any tension on the balloon line would be terminated, and the capsule would fall back to Earth.


The parachute system is closely tied in here as well: A drogue chute will be on top of the parachute housing, and when that BTRR jettisons, the drogue should would essentially be pull up from turbulence, and provide:

1. Dynamic stability of the capsule while keeping expected speeds.
2. Main chute deployment.

There will be a hatch on top of the parachute housing that would be connected to the drogue chute. A to-be-designed-mechanism would allow the drogue chute to pull the hatch, then the parachute out. The q (dynamic pressure) on a 12" parachute going ~120 MPH would be enough to pull the main out for sure. So no worries there.


All of the functions of the flight would be controlled from a Trackuino with temperature, barometric pressure, and GPS sensor readings. A safety mechanism would be greatly needed, but I think it would become
too cumbersome. So working out everything here first would be a prerequisite. A skydiver said he could test our capsule at around 10,000' AGL once it's ready, so we can see if everything goes well for the big one.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Nick

[NMarkis]

Here's a 3-D model. Rather basic, but I'm working on a a much more detailed version at the moment.


-Nick



http://freepdfhosting.com/d5d51b7509.pdf

[tstowe]

Here's a 3-D model. Rather basic, but I'm working on a a much more detailed version at the moment.

-Nick

http://freepdfhosting.com/d5d51b7509.pdf

What if it were shaped like a ballistic missile? It would cut through the wind and should have a fairly consistent course on the way down...until the parachute is deployed anyway.

[NMarkis]

Hey,

That sounds like a great idea. Really does.


I might look into that...


Thanks,
Nick

[NMarkis]

I believe, Todd, we can build one like you said in the form of a rocket body for testing, and the such.

Now, if we'll keep it that way, is dependent on future payloads.

Thanks for the suggestion.