The Icarus Project

The Icarus Project

High Altitude Ballooning

Icarus II Launch 6

Objective
To take observational photographs of the volcanic ash clouds over the UK

Technical Data

Launch Date 15 May 2010 12:32:55
Launch Latitude 52.250568
Launch Longitude -0.091356
Landing Date 15 May 2010 14:23:49
Landing Latitude 52.173077
Landing Longitude -0.400255
Flight Duration
Max Altitude
Average Descent Rate
Max Descent Rate
Impact Speed
Payload Mass
Balloon Mass 1.5kg
Total Mass

Pictures

[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157623877214502"]


Video of burst from ground (burst 31 km)

http://www.youtube.com/user/futuritymmx
http://www.eoss.org/eoss085/eoss85_quick_pop_normal_contrast.wmv

Description
This launch reminds one again of the importance of pre-launch testing. On Friday evening I had abandoned the launch due to lack of certainty of getting any pictures of ash and I thought I would concentrate on getting the Icarus III payload complete ready for launch. However there was a bulletin on the BBC news that talked about seeing layers of volcanic ash in the atmosphere. On Saturday morning at 7am I took the decision to launch. A quick phone call to the support team (Mum and Partner) got a positive response and the launch was on.

Lessons learnt and improvement in the future

Get a launch check list together and use it.

Debug the temperature reading problem

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