MCC Launch – 4/9/16

We completed our 48th successful HAB launch on Saturday, April 9, 2016 from the South Omaha Campus of MCC.

My calculus-based Physics II students prepared the pods with their experiments.

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Although the sun was shining, it was windy and still very chilly after a night that dropped below freezing. We prepared for the launch on the grass in front of the Connector Building. Notice how clean the chase vehicle is.

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Accidental selfie while turning on the Go Pro camera on Pod #2.

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3..2..1..Liftoff!

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We were able to launch around 9:30 am. The students then headed off to take a Calculus III test and were not able to go on the chase, which turned out to be somewhat eventful.

I am often  impressed with how closely the prediction software matches the actual flight path. This time, the prediction was within just a few miles. It had us landing near Clarinda, Iowa and that is precisely what happened.

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The balloon burst occurred at 83,875 ft.

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Slow motion video of the balloon burst.

 

After the balloon burst.

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Satellite view of landing site.

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We had a visual of the payloads on the descent, but we had difficulty finding a non-existent road that was listed on our map. When we found the payloads, they were in a tree.

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We tried some methods of getting a string around the payloads so we could pull them out of the tree. It gave Michael a chance to try out his CO2 line gun. It has a foam dart that has a string tied to it.

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That wasn’t doing the job so we tried our weighted tennis ball with a string attached.

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That was taking a long time, so the property owner decided to give us a hand by cutting the tree down with a chain saw.

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Jim and Kendra, happy to have everything out of the tree unscathed.

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Now, we just needed to get back to the highway.

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Uh oh.

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After a tow from the tractor, we were on our way home to recover from the recovery. Remember how nice and clean the vehicle was at the beginning of the day?

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We want to give a big thanks to the physics students, MCC, NASA Nebraska Space Grant for helping make our flight possible and to the landowners for helping make our recovery possible.