Balloon flight antenna

Low Power Radio Solutions (LPRS), a European supplier of short-range radio devices, has provided a high-sensitivity, omnidirectional Yagi antenna to four amateur space enthusiasts who have now managed five successful high-altitude balloon flights into near space.

The balloon is fitted with a computer probe and digital cameras to send information back to Earth as live internet events.

Spacebits is the brainchild of four technology enthusiasts from Portugal who have been inspired by recent amateur ballooning projects posted to the internet. Celso Martinho, Filipe Varela, Filipe Valpereiro and Fernando Afonso between them have working knowledge of the internet, programming, DIY and electronics, and by day Filipe Valpereiro is a teacher and the other three work for a large web news portal.

Due to their common interests, they became the Spacebits project team in 2009 at Codebits, a three-day event featuring computer workshops, gaming and a programming and hacking competition.

The goal for the Spacebits project was to launch a high-altitude balloon fitted with a computer probe into near space over Portugal. The helium-filled balloon will go as high as 30,000 m, to the stratosphere, where it explodes and the probe falls to Earth on a parachute for recovery and re-use.

HABs have been in use for many years by scientific institutions and universities; and now with the availability of internet communication and low cost electronics, microcontrollers and sensors, DIY communities and individuals have been able to afford similar projects.

The Spacebits’ flight is an internet event. The balloon sends it coordinates and sensor measurements live to the Spacebits website, where the flight can be followed on a real-time dashboard and an interactive map. Spacebits also tweets its status and coordinates in real time to Twitter.

The main computer reads data from a 2-axis gyro and 3-axis accelerometer; barometric, temperature and humidity sensors; a compass module and optical dust sensor; and a GPS sensor. The main computer also logs the information to an onboard SD card logger and sends radio signals back to Earth.

Two digital cameras - one fitted to the bottom of the payload box and the other on the side - took continuous time-lapse images throughout the flight.