Constructions
Will you be releasing photos of the construction and testing of PARIS and Vulture 1 before the final launch?
El Reg space bureau firms up PARIS kit list
Our Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) programme is moving briskly along, and we've now put together an initial kit list for both the main payloads and Vulture 1 vehicle. PARIS: Sponsored by Peer 1 First up, after mulling the main payload, and just what we need it to do, we decided that we didn't really want to get …
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Monday 8th February 2010 16:33 GMT Edwin
Not kidding...
Both systems can be tested for functionality in a deep freezer or over a bath of liquid nitrogen. I'll wager, however, that a solenoid+battery triggered by a barometerwill provide more consistent results than a system relying on the amount of air in a syringe.
That's because the syringe system depends on friction and pressure, and friction is also dependent on things like moisture (is the glass wet or is there frost on it, etc).
Barometers can be bought ready for outdoor use, something that doesn't factor into syringe manufacture...
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Friday 5th February 2010 16:55 GMT Tom Paine
Curses
A couple of mates and I were planning our own stab at amateur high-altitude phun this summer, but El Reg talking about it public means we'll probably be beaten to it by hordes of over-enthusiastic IT people flinging vast quantities of disposable income at it. I'd just like to warn anyone else thinking of having a go that it's REALLY REALLY HARD, and very expensive (apart from anything else you've no more than a one -in-two chance of recovering the payload, going on past launch stats, which means your custom flight computer, GPS, cellphone, shortwave transmitter (if you're going for the whole packet-radio live telemetry route), not to mention an expensive digital camera... plus all the blood sweat and tears you've put into it. So please don't bother trying. Not til next year, anyway...
PS Oh yeah and you need to give the CAA a month's heads-up to get a NOTAM out. Pilots tend to frown on aircraft drifting randomly through their flight paths, especially if they're not carrying a radar reflector and the first they know about it is a windscreen full of amateur geekery.
Grenade because _this is war_!
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
