UKSEDS & ICSEDS Project Officer, TeeJay Taiwo, prepares his rockets for his license assesment. Photo credit: Kishan, ICSEDS

UKSEDS report that last Sunday, members of Imperial College Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (ICSEDS) traveled to Elsworth, Cambridgeshire, for their first launch trip.

The aim was to launch two 434 MHz High Altitude Balloons (HABs) and several model rockets built over the course of the year.

The two HABs were the culmination of ICSEDS very own space race, with teams Alpha and Omega competing to design and launch a HAB able to take photographs of the curvature of the Earth for the lowest cost. Team Alpha chose to use a second hand HTC Desire smartphone, providing them with a camera, GPS tracker, battery, and processor in one package. Meanwhile Team Omega built their payload from scratch, using two Arduinos and a variety of sensors to track their balloon’s location, altitude and capture images.

UKSEDS report that radio amateur Steve Randall G8KHW taught ICSEDS members how to fill the balloons.

Read the UKSEDS report at http://ukseds.org/icseds-launch-trip/

Watch the video – How to track High Altitude 434 MHz Balloons

High Altitude Balloon Tracking Links at http://www.essexham.co.uk/high-altitude-balloon-tracking

ICSEDS on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ICSEDS

UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space UKSEDS http://ukseds.org/

UKSEDS Facebook https://www.facebook.com/UKSEDS