First off, Welcome!

So far we have launched a couple of capsules into the stratosphere and....with both dogged persistence and good luck....we have recovered both capsules after flight. Each capsule returned with some gorgeous pictures of a near-space environment: black skies in mid-day, stunning weather systems, and curvature of the earth.

Our team is doing this-- and if you are reading this thread, that team now includes you!

Here's the deal. We do this because we thinks it is cool. There are challenges to conquer: -100F temperatures, tracking, capsule, recovery, radios, parachutes, lighter-than-air gasses, geocaching-like searches, weather, and so much more: microcontrollers? Arduino feeding back data? Long distance flight attempts?

Well, it's up to this team to define and launch our projects!

So here's the deal. For our next launch, each team member is putting in $20. 100% of that goes to the ballooning project. The way scientific balloons work, the larger balloon you buy, the higher you can go. (Well, there’s more to it than that-- but we'll get into that.) The bigger the balloon, the more it costs. So, the more team members that are putting in $20 each, the bigger balloon we buy, the higher we go! We're talking 100,000 feet-- woah, that's high.

It's all about this group working together to accomplish more than any of us could do alone. And, its about having a good time doing it!

The next proposed meeting is at TechShop RDU on Tuesday, September 14th at 7pm. In that session we will be talking about what we're sending up, problem solving, and putting our money together. The next day we'll pool the cash and order the gear for the launch. The more people, the more balloon we get--- and we go HIGHER!

Then, our team, including you, will launch and recover the near-space system on Sunday, September 26th! Have a cell phone? Give your phone number and carrier and you'll get SMS updates of the lat/long of the balloon in flight. Can't make it out to the launch but want to be on the team? Outstanding; we need someone to track from a computer, and guide us in to the payload. Or, just watch!

Have an idea about what you want to send up? Bring that idea. Have a better capsule? Bring it! Have the idea, but don't have the item? Make It! Working with this group, we can build it, fly it, recover it-- and do outstanding things.

Join us:
TechShop RDU
5905 Triangle Drive
Raleigh, NC 27617

Tuesday, September 14th at 7pm.

-Trappe