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back to article LOHAN team regroups for second pop at SPEARS

Fans of the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) spaceplane project should mark Saturday 13 July in their diaries, because that's when our elite team will once again assemble in Blighty's Baikonur* for the second test flight of the Special Project Electronic Altitude Release System (SPEARS) board. Click here for a …

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  1. Elmer Phud

    Training

    We would like to know how the training programme for the brave Playmonaut is going.

    The fitness of the pilot is essential when the balloon goes up.

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    1. Dan 37
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      Re: Training

      along with swimming lessons, for when it comes down?

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    2. Crisp
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      Re: brave Playmonaut

      Has a Playmonaut been named yet?

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      1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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        Re: Re: brave Playmonaut

        Watch this space...

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    3. Anonymous Coward
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      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Training

      Why did I read that as '...essential when the balloon blows up.'?

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  2. Parax

    Seems Playmobile is just not up to the job. Must be time to get a Lego man suited up ready.

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    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
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      Happy

      HERETIC!!!!!!!

      sorry, couldn't resist.

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  3. Anonymous Custard
    Pint

    Live feed?

    In addition to the Pi-on-high stuff mentioned, are you gonna have the live feed from the launch again (and the one from the car as you lot go chasing about the Home Counties trying to recover the thing)?

    It was quite a fun Saturday morning last time watching you lot rush around and joining in the community chat for the "unofficial" running commentary. Although if so this time don't forget that taking the phone which is providing the uplink away from the camera will result in frozen pictures and irritated audience of commentards ;)

    But in any case traditional pints to be raised, and best of luck to our Playmoclone bravely stepping into the still-damp shoes of his predecessor.

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    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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      Re: Live feed?

      I refer you to Anthony and Dave, who handle such things. Hopefully, we will have the live feed.

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      1. Elmer Phud
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        Alert

        Re: Live feed?

        The viewing demand will kill the internet!!!

        Won't somebody think of the children etc.etc.

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  4. ukgnome
    Trollface

    When are you going to scale this up so that Lester can get a ride?

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  5. Peter Simpson 1
    Thumb Up

    This time...

    Including extra flotation and a waterproof return address label?

    Best of luck to the Playmonaut and his (her?) ground crew!

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  6. Anthony Stirk

    Yes there will be a live feed and yes I will remember to take my 3G SIM this time.

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  7. Alan Esworthy

    Backup ignition methods?

    Lester, would you please tell us about backup ignition methods testing? Thanks!

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    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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      Re: Backup ignition methods?

      I will, just as soon as I've finished the testing. Be patient...

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  8. Eugene Crosser

    Mechanism for emergency mission abort?

    Could it be useful to be able to destruct the balloon when it flies outside of the desired area, on command from the ground (if you have an upstream radio channel), or automatically by analysing the GPS data? Would have saved the payload on the last test flight.

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    1. Anthony Stirk
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      Re: Mechanism for emergency mission abort?

      Hi Eugene,

      The loss of the payload last time was due to some dodgy weather data, we have a plan to verify the data prior to the launch this time (a smaller balloon going up a hour or so before).

      Autonomous flight termination is possible and yes we have code to geofence an area and take appropriate action should we leave that area.

      Due to the radio laws in the UK remote termination of the flight is possible but quite complex and a bit hit and miss, I doubt we have the time to implement this. You can use a Rockblock to do this but we lost the one they gave us :/

      Cheers,

      Anthony

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  9. Blofeld's Cat
    Coat

    Shakes head sadly...

    Not a beard or a pipe between the three of them.

    It's the lab coat with five coloured pencils and some graph paper in the top pocket.

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  10. C. P. Cosgrove
    Pint

    Good luck !

    And a gill of rum for the heroic replacement Playmonaut in case he decides to join the Navy and ditch again !

    Chris Cosgrove

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  11. CmdrX3
    Pint

    Guess I will have to miss it.

    I shall be sipping some form of alcoholic beverage on a Mediterranean island. Still.... if it goes the same way as the last test I might get to wave to him as he flies overhead. I may be too drunk to offer up a poem on this occasion however.

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  12. Astarte

    Hydrohelium

    Perhaps LOHAN should now be renamed LOH2AN (unless you have a good supply of monatomic hydrogen).

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    1. Martin Budden Silver badge
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      Re: Hydrohelium

      It's easy to produce monatomic hydrogen, it just doesn't stay that way for very long.

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