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Anacapa Near Space Exploration Club
AAHAB-1 Team Members
814 Santa Barbara Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Dear AAHAB-1 Team Members:
I am still floating from the major success of the balloon launch. I hope you all know how much of an achievement this project was. Each one of you contributed in a major way to its success and it was obvious to everyone in attendance for your debriefing presentation at Breakfast Club on Thursday. Congratulations! This is just the beginning of many great things to come. I hope that the AAHAB-1 near space probe project has demonstrated to everyone that ingenuity is not dead. Just as Franklin flew a key on a kite in a thunderstorm, we used (somewhat) ordinary materials to make and discover some truly awesome things. Our efforts and dedication as “makers” and “hackers” (good hackers who hack together technology to work for them) paid off in a big way.
Suzie has asked that I get you all together one last time to help me document the project for posterity in your own words. As the pioneers of the Anacapa Near Space Exploration program you are among the first high school students in the world to create a project like this. Others have done this at the university level and with much help and many failed attempts. You must recognize that AAHAB-1 was truly an achievement for makers of any level and you are trailblazers for future near space explorers both at Anacapa and beyond. The data we collected and the design we used to collect it is important to preserve for the future.
Sincerely,
Levi C. Maaia
ANSEC Faculty Advisor
Posted May 31, 2011 at 12:22. Add a comment
Students capture photos and environmental data from 90,000 feet above Earth’s surface
AAHAB-1 reached an altitude greater than 90,000 feet overlooking the Central Coast, San Luis Obispo Bay and the Pismo Dunes.
The Anacapa School’s Near Space Exploration Club (ANSEC) successfully recovered its high-altitude balloon after a weekend flight, which returned stunning photos and environmental data from the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
On Saturday, May 21, 2011, at 9:43 a.m., ANSEC members Julio Bernal, Aubrey Cazabat, Christian Eckert and Connor Proctor along with faculty advisor Levi Maaia launched the club’s first near space balloon probe, AAHAB-1, from a site east of Paso Robles in the small community of Shandon, Calif. The group’s mission was to gather photos and environmental data as the balloon passed through the stratosphere.
The ANSEC team calculated the balloon's lift in order to ensure the craft would climb quickly.
After the probe’s two-hour and 10-minute flight over the California Central Coast, the team recovered the payload in rural Kings County, Calif., twenty miles northeast of the launch site.
“We worked so hard on this project,” said senior Aubrey Cazabat. “It was such an amazing feeling to see the capsule back on the ground and to know that we had done it!”
From the top of the balloon’s 91,122-foot ascent above 99 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere, the camera had a view as far as 400 miles in all directions under a black, near space sky. The capsule’s GPS radio tracking signal was heard by amateur radio stations as far away as San Diego and Mendocino Counties.
After beginning this project in the late fall, the Anacapa students quickly learned that they had a steep learning curve ahead as they tackled challenges from wind and flight path prediction to engineering a sturdy but lightweight capsule that could survive brutally cold conditions and hurricane-force winds. Despite these hurdles, the club achieved all of its goals and retrieved extensive environmental data, including temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and radiation exposure levels, along with stunning photos of Earth’s curved surface.
“We picked up some ice on the camera window, which can be seen in a few of the higher level shots,” said senior Connor Proctor. “Other than that, all of our critical systems worked flawlessly.”
Data from the flight, including photos, a map of the flight path and environmental data, can be found at the school’s Web site www.anacapaschool.org.
Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC–accredited, college preparatory day school for junior high and high school students in grades 7-12. Founded in 1981 by Headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa Barbara civic center.
Posted May 25, 2011 at 17:37. Add a comment
T-minus four days, nine hours until lift off of AAHAB-1, Anacapa School’s first near space probe! What is a near space probe? Never mind that … what is “near space?”
Over the past few years the proliferation of GPS-enabled devices, as well as compact and light-weight digital photography, has helped give bloom to a burgeoning movement of amateur balloonists. These are not the Around the World in 80 Days-types that hope to circumnavigate the globe in a luxury appointed airship, but rather groups of hackers and makers who combine smart phones and Arduinos to create sophisticated weather balloons for a fraction of the cost traditionally spent by the National Weather Service and the U.S. military to explore the upper atmosphere. Near space, specifically the region of the Earth’s atmosphere between 65,000 and 100,000 feet above sea level (MSL), is the destination of choice for these amateur explorers.
Just about six months ago, four high school students from Anacapa School and I began planning to launch a high altitude balloon. Anacapa School is not the first educational group to attempt a flight like this (college-age MIT students from the 1337arts group claim to have done it for $150 in 2009), but we are certainly the first high school club in this region to organize a student-run flight. Our group, the Anacapa Near Space Exploration Club (ANSEC), decided that its radiosonde should contain the typical digital camera as well as a number of additional instruments to measure barometric pressure, temperature, humidity and even radiation levels in the environment both inside and outside of the four-pound foam cooler.
Few Earth-bound objects ever find their way up to the thin air of 100,000 feet MSL, the altitude at which we expect our balloon will burst and begin its return to the surface. A typical jet airliner tops off below 40,000 feet and even the most powerful military jets are just now finding their way above 60,000 ft. At its apex over Central California, AAHAB-1′s onboard camera will be able to see (assuming clear skies and high visibility) from San Francisco to Mexico to Las Vegas, over 400 miles in all directions, while the barometer will measure less than one percent of the atmospheric pressure found at sea level (99 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere will be below the probe at this height).
The launch, weather permitting, is scheduled to take place Saturday May 21, from one of several predetermined launch sites on the Central Coast of California. Over the next couple weeks I will continue posting information here on Maaia.com, including a complete project report and instructions to teachers and other individuals who wish to replicate a similar flight. For those interested in tracking the progress of the flight, we are using the amateur radio Amateur Packet Reporting System (APRS) to track AAHAB-1 using amateur radio call sign K6LCM-11. The onboard APRS unit will send frequent position reports to amateur radio stations across the region which will, in turn, map the flight on APRS.fi in real-time. Click here to follow along on Saturday morning using a Google Maps-based APRS system.
The first media release we sent out about the project from Anacapa School explains some more details about the flight as well. Stay tuned for more followup information.
Update May 21, 2011: Listen to the public radio story about the launch!
Posted May 17, 2011 at 00:22. 1 comment
One evening in Hawaii, we decided to journey up to the top of Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii. Standing at the top nearly 14,000 feet in elevation above sea level and above 40% of the Earth’s atmosphere, left me short of breath but not short on views. The vista from the top looking over the persistent cloud deck made for a storybook sunset. And the lack of atmosphere above coupled with the remoteness of the location (2,400 miles from the U.S. mainland) revealed stars that would make even countryfolk blush.
Mauna Kea, in addition to being the most important spiritual place for native Hawaiians (in ancient law, only kahunas were allowed to visit the peak), is also home to 13 deep-space telescopes from highly-acclaimed research institutions around the country, including the University of Hawaii. While I did not have my tripod with me at the summit, I was able to capture a few decent shots just before the sun went down. This image of the Canada-France-Hawaii (left) and the Gemini North (right) observatories is my favorite.
Posted April 10, 2011 at 20:27. Add a comment
A Minotaur IV booster carrying a military space surveillance satellite lifted off from Vandenberg AFB this evening from South Base at 9:41 p.m. PDT.
A first-of-its-kind military tool to monitor satellites and space junk is aboard the rocket. According to the U.S. Air Force, the device will help keep better tabs on the more than half a million pieces of space junk that pose a potential hazard to operational satellites and manned spacecraft.
These photos were taken with a Canon 50D from Santa Barbara’s Westside. Both exposures were more than 10 seconds long.
Posted September 25, 2010 at 22:05. 1 comment
A couple weeks back I saw a flier in a local shop advertising a day trip on a vintage railway car. The classic 39 seat first class lounge was built in 1949 by the famous Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company for use on the old San Francisco Overland Trail line between Chicago and San Francisco on the now defunct passenger service of Southern Pacific Railroad.
We arrived at Santa Barbara’s Amtrak station on Sunday morning as the San Luis Obispo-bound Amtrak train pulled in the station. The familiar sight of Amtrak’s polished steel train was interrupted by what I would soon learn was the trademark “Daylight” paint scheme of the old Southern Pacific line. Our Pullman car dropped off a trainload of Los Angeles day-trippers bound for Santa Barbara’s urban wine trail – a prearranged combination train ride and wine tour – and we boarded the classically luxurious streamliner.
Our scenic trip on Southern Pacific railcar 2981 took us through the rarely seen Santa Barbara County coastline, obscured by private ranches, rugged terrain and the implicit secrecy of Vandenberg Air Force Base. As photo opportunities whizzed by the large, crystal-clear windows, I tried my best to snap my shutter. The train’s antique windows had an odd effect on the digital exposures, giving each shot a sort of vintage look and coloring. All of the photos in the gallery were taken on Sunday August 29, 2010, but have a strange quality that, at a glance, might be mistaken for August 29, 1950.
The tracks wind past the infamous Point Conception and Point Arguello where the mostly southern facing coastline of Santa Barbara jogs northward toward the notoriously sharky and perilous waters of the California Central Coast. Past Vandenberg the missile launch sites are clearly visible on the leeward side of the tracks, as is the gigantic 15,000-foot long runway on the base.
While the Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo trip is relatively new, the Overland Trail car was purchased 23 years ago by Bill Hatrick and his wife Debbie. They restored the train to its original splendor, complete with stewardess’s quarters and a on-board barber shop. The Hatricks claim that they are just one year away from being the car’s longest-term owners, as their records indicate that Southern Pacific itself owned the 2981 railcar for 24 years. Bill serves as conductor and host for the rides. He beamed with pride as he explained the process of restoring the classic railcars to Amtrak’s modern specifications, complete with sanitary holding tanks, rendering quaint the original posted lavatory warnings about not flushing while the train is standing in the station.
When not gliding up the coast hitched to an Amtrak locomotive, the Overland Trail sleeps in Los Angeles Union Station where it is available for charter for a variety of occasions. The Hatrick’s 2981 railcar was even featured in Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of our Fathers,” among other productions.
Visit the complete photo gallery for more images of our journey up the coast, including photos of the launch facilities at Vandenberg. More information and a complete history on the Overland Trail Club Lounge Car can be found at larail.com. For booking information on the Santa Barbra to San Luis Obispo route call Terry at 805.680.0397.
Posted August 31, 2010 at 00:34. 1 comment
Tim Lister and Rachel Street, project scientists at the UCSB-affiliated Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network joined Tim and me this morning to talk about their exciting discovery of nine gaseous planets in deep space. Their discovery upset the exiting theory about how planets are formed. Listen to the podcast.
Posted May 25, 2010 at 12:04. Add a comment
After further examination on Wednesday of the early morning’s photos with a colleague, Adam, we discovered that I had indeed captured a frame with Comet Lulin. The first photo, from last night, is a little wider angle shot than the one originally posted. This reveals that the comet was in fact right under my nose. The red arrow points to the greenish hued comet. The tail can be just barely seen extending toward the 8 o’clock direction. The streaking effect is due to the movement of the earth during the 30 second exposure. Real star photogs have rigs that track the movement to eliminate that during long exposures.
After making this discovery, I decided to take Daniela on an outing this evening to see if we could spot this green comet again. After 20 minutes of sky-searching I was able to get this second shot.
Posted February 26, 2009 at 01:35. Add a comment
Last night I stayed up to look for Comet Lulin near Saturn and to see the launch of the Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO). A 30 second exposure to the south in an attempt to reveal the green comet yielded the shot to the right. At first I thought my camera was shaking, but upon further examination it appeared that a 30 second at 300 mm is enough to reveal streaks from the spinning of the earth on its axis! Wow, we are moving.
By 1:30 am PST I had abandoned the search for Lulin and turned my tripod to the north toward Vandenberg AFB. The Taurus XL was set to lift off at 1:50:30 PST. I had the laptop on the top of the car streaming NASA TV and the countdown. At T-plus 00:00:10 I saw a fireball rocket in the northwestern sky heading south. As I raced to get my camera off of bulb-exposure mode (in the excitement and darkness I failed to be prepared) what appeared to be the first stage of the rocket separated in a puff of smoke. Then, as it crossed the western sky southward, there was another puff, this one larger than the last. In the photo on the left there is a clear stream streak on the lower left of the frame which is the glowing rocket flame. To the top right side of the frame there is an eerie “cloud” which is the position in the sky at which I observed the second poof. The “cloud” remained for several minutes.
This morning I learned that the launch had failed and the satellite had crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after a rocket stage failed to separate properly. Which leaves me wondering if the mysterious “cloud” is the moment of failure.
Posted February 24, 2009 at 09:50. Add a comment
