Gopher  Space 2016

What a great day!  

Incredible weather helped make this launch a resounding success from start to finish.  

Gophernaut waves goodbye and thank you to Carman Collegiate as she heads off on her second voyage into space!  In her hands, the GCCSA Flag and a corn kernel for one our science experiments...

 SUCCESS! 

Launched:  

Friday, April 29, 2016

from Carman Collegiate, Carman

A big thank you to Mr. Jack Phillips, principal of our host school, who kindly allowed 5 balloon teams to launch from their school grounds - and to all the staff and students of Carman Collegiate who made the day a really great experience.

Thank you to the awesome administration of Garden City Collegiate and the Seven Oaks School Division Board of Trustees for their kind support!

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Our spectacular image of frozen Lake Manitoba (left) and Lake Winnipeg (right) taken at 32, 189 m (105,600 ft).

Five times higher than commercial jets fly!  The City of Winnipeg can be seen in the lower right. 

High Altitude Ballooning - It's all about Pressure

Mr. Carson and the flight team - Vincent, John, Magen, JD -  

are under pressure to get the right pressure in the balloon.  

Looking over at Mr. Kenny and Mr. Halderson -

they appear to have the pressure under control! 

After placing their experiments in the Peanut  Butter Cup, 

  the pressure is off the Science Team - Breanna, Sarah and Zoe -

 so they relax for a group photo in front of the balloon with Mrs. Gajda.  

No pressure on John,

he's just keeping our balloon from

flying away. 

The pressure was on the payload team

-  Jondell, Steven, Donwin and Ostin -

to have the Peanut Butter Cup Payload Bus

  finished and ready in time for today!

(Photo by J. Story - Winnipeg Times)

    Barbara applies a little pressure

    on the tape  holding our antenna

    in place.

Melissa and Katelyn's motto: "Pressure?  What Pressure?"  

The pressure mounts as the team prepares for launch,

Colton leads the group and monitors radio traffic.

Two and a half hours later...the pressure is off the whole team as we find our payload in a farm field 9 km from the launch site.

The Flight and Mission Results

3D track of Gopher Space's flight path, as seen from Winnipeg.  The colours represent altitude.

Our flight track over the ground from our SPOT beacon 

Fort Richmond and St. James balloons flying in formation with Gopher Space.  

Gophernaut waves to Shaftesbury (higher up) and Fort Richmond.

Frosty lens...frosty lakes!

Close to the flight's top altitude of 32189 m, Gophernaut is in pretty cold conditions - and our camera window frosted up.  Below her you can see ice still on Lake Manitoba (left) and Lake Winnipeg (right).  

This Google Earth map shows almost the same view.  

From this height, Gophernaut was able to see over 350 km away!

Our pressure and temperature sensors collected incredible data...exactly what was expected on our flight.  But, the extremely low pressure at is still a surprise.  It tells us that we were on the edge of space!

The ground tracks of all the high schools who launched from Carman on April 29, 2016

Beauty and the Beast

Because of last year's camera failure, one of our goals was to catch the burst of the balloon on this flight.  In just 1/6 of a second our balloon was transformed from beautiful, benign spacecraft to a dangerous, destructive mess that broke our antenna mast, tangled our parachute and nearly cost us Gophernaut!

Media:

Times Article - February 24

Partner Websites:

Shaftesbury High School SOAR-1

St. James Collegiate Jimmies

Maples Collegiate MaraudAIR

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Gopher Space 2015 

Successful launch and recovery of Gopher Space 2015

Thank you to the administration and staff of Garden City C

ollegiate, in particular Mr. Steve Medwick, Principal, for allowing us to start up this project and offering his support.  

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