Escaping Velocity.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wyXAoYt8yGEjh4TIk8ufRyogl-rlnR2TAzLtoLG2sl8/edit?usp=sharing

https://github.com/JayasooryaJeswin/HAB2

HOW WE ADDRESSED THIS CHALLENGE :

 Our project HAB, is used for geographical mapping. And it is also able to predict the weather of a certain location. Also by balancing the balloon just before it reaches the maximum height ,we can maintain the balloon for more time than usual to work get more out of a balloon. Also there is a mechanism on this balloon that brings back the balloon to a destined location. It uses a drone to take over the falling force and steer the balloon to right location at the perfect time. This will allow us to send it again using another balloon, without any time lag. This will be much beneficial for long term repeated flight projects

HOW WE DEVELOPED THIS PROJECT :

• The challenge is to make a high altitude balloon that goes near space. There are many students and other people who want to reach near space. They want to see the space or at least launch a rocket that reaches near space. But the factor that stops them from making this dream a reality, is the cost. It costs a lot and it is not affordable for common people or students. Thus these dreams just remain only as dreams. So we decided to work on this project to make this dream come true by making a lesson plan to make a high altitude balloon at a low cost that will definitely help underprivileged children to make their dream come true. They will feel as if they are space engineers. Or at least they will be able to send something here a h a b to the space they will be proud of themselves and more and more people will come to this sector. This made us inspired and motivated enough to proceed with this project.
• We also had enough motivation and enthusiasm to proceed with this project. And we want to address many other problems such as changing weather or network coverage in rural areas. We tried to unite this problem and this idea of a high altitude balloon. So as we tackle this challenge we will be able to make the "space dreamer's" dream come true and also we might be able to solve many other daily life problems so we definitely wanted to solve it.

IMPORTANCE OF OUR PROJECT :

• There are enthusiastic people out there who want to work on geographical survey of their own locality, but again the cost stops them. But this solution - HAB - can make them work on their research or with such hobbies by their own; without depending on any agency or something (excluding the permission of some governmental organization; depending on the location they are). They can proceed with their research at very low cost. It is sure that this affordability will attract many curious minds to this sector and definitely towards science.
• We have also included a weather mapping system, which can send us the quantitative data of pressure, temperature, relative humidity, by which we can almost accurately predict the climate of a location. Thus will be very much beneficial for rural farmers to access this facility. The importance of this way even increases in this time of climate change. They can facilitate the farmers to go perfectly accordance to climate and thus yield more crops.

• PICTURE 1 : The picture will explain that we are using our high resolution camera we are scanning the lands using the help of Artificial Intelligence .
• And for hobbyists this will be great thing for taking photos from space, photos of space and just getting a proud feeling. HAB is a good option for people who have unquenchable space love and only have love and only have low budget

APPROACH TO ACHIEVE THE OUTCOME :

•  First we searched for the purpose of our HAB. It can be for weather prediction, aerial photography or to work as a source of communication; as it is usually used. We decided to unite all these ideas. This will be much cost effective as we are getting more out of it at less expense. The main aim of our project is to get a geographical map of an area. Along with this, we have made the payload in a way with which it can measure the pressure, temperature and humidity of the atmosphere. This will help us to predict the climate of an area.
• Next we thought of reducing the effort in it by making the process of flying HAB more easy. For this, we planned to use a drone in order to land the payload where we want. Thus we calculated the rpm and area of the blade using the weight of payload. This assured us that the drone can hold the payload while ascending and reduce it's speed. If we allowed the payload to reach near the surface of earth and then bring back it using drone, it will be an increased work load for the drone. Then the drone has to carry the payload by it's own and will increase the time taken as the distance to travel increases. So when it is a certain height above the earth surface, drone will steer the payload to a destined location. As it is in a height the drone just has to take a landed path and gravity will do half of the work. So drone has to much little work. This will tremendously reduce the time taken for the payload to reach us and the man power we needed to bring back the payload. This can be achieved by a pre-programmed system or we can manually control the drone to reach a place. As the payload reaches, we can use the next balloon to take off the payload again with no significant time lag. In case the drone failed to work properly, the parachute which we have added as a safety precaution, will deploy to land the payload safely.
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• PICTURE 2 : Travelling path of Drone.
• The proper mechanism for this is, as the balloon bursts a sudden force is applied on the payload which sets of the sensor in it. This triggers the drone. So the drone reduces the speed of free fall by applying an upward force on it. Using radiosonde, we can find the altitude of the payload and when payload reaches a specific height, it will start directing the payload towards the destined position. The GPS will help in this. Or we can decide not to turn on this automated system to steer the drone and can manually do with by means of radio waves. And thus we can land it safely.
•  If the drone failed to reduce the speed as the balloon bursts, the system in the payload can know this by finding the altitude change - using radiosonde - and the time taken. As we have programmed, the drone will be shut downed then and the mechanism releases the parachute. We have placed the parachute so that it won't stuck on the blades of the drone. A mini parachute is kept at the end of large one, which will help to pull the large one upward before it deploys. So as it is straightened by the small one, it will deploy more efficiently. Thus we can safely land the drone in the ground.

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• PICTURE 3 : Our project model.
• For the gas to be used, we had two options; Hydrogen and Helium. We had to select which will suit us. Hydrogen was less expensive (compared to Helium), it could give more buoyant force. But the main drawback we saw in it was it is highly inflamable and had to store. And we didn't want any casualties. Helium on the other hand,is safe to store and use. Also produce no environmental damage as it is a noble gas and simply escapes to the space once it is released. Thus we decided to use Helium even it is comparatively expensive. And the balloon was confirmed to be latex made. Because latex degrades and cause no problem to the environment.
•   We had decided to find the climate change in a location. For this the equipment radiosonde was used. It can determine atmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, altitude, wind speed and direction and it can send radio signals to the ground. By this data we can predict the climate.

METHODOLOGY OF PROJECT :

• As we started developing, the first thing we had to do was to be certain about the purpose. We had some basic ideas about the purpose of HABs. But it wasn't enough. We had to bring it to the next level, so we did discussion and research. And at last reached a conclusion to equip the balloon for geographical mapping. This will help us to make a high resolution, detailed map of a specific location. This will make more accessible for people who are in rural places ,and those who are unaware of such techniques. As even an enthusiastic sudden can do this, it will definitely reach the bottom sector of our society. Also we found out that along with this main purpose, we can add certain tools to get the pressure, temperature and thus climate data. This will provide more out of a single HAB at very low rate

PICTURE 4 : A Entire journey of HAB.

• And an ingenious idea was put forward that to add a drone with the payload. As the balloon bursts, the speed of descent can be reduced by using a drone with high rpm and large blade area. So as the payload reaches near the surface, we can steer the drone to make it reach a destined location, manually or by pre-programmed system. So as soon as the payload reaches the location, if we have prepared the next balloon for flight, we can just relaunch it pretty quickly. This can save a lot of time, effort and will be much beneficial for a long term program. Incase the drone failed to do so, we have added a parachute as safety precaution. We have a programmed system that automatically releases the parachute if the drone could not reduce the speed of descent. Anyway the payload reaches the earth surface very gently and safely.
• The other main thing we had to consider was about the gas we use. Helium and Hydrogen were two options we had. Both had advantages and disadvantages. So it took a little discussion to confirm it. On considering every side, Helium was found to be better. And the size of the balloon and parachute, length of the paracord, amount of Helium to be filled and how to arrange the payload properly was next on the list. Some research and brainstorming sessions resolved these issues and we can come up with proper ideas. Also for increasing the flight time, we made an idea to balance the both upward and downward force by decreasing the helium volume as the balloon reaches a few kilometres from the maximum altitude.
•    And we wanted it to rectify every issue that could possibly occur. So we started to discuss it. For effective solutions we had to travel along with balloons. Our imagination ascends with the balloon considering every aspect that could create adversity in our flight. We travelled all the way up, saw the balloon working and it burst and followed till it landed. We changed minute factors,worked out the math and physics and finally our balloon was ready for it's real flight. 

BENEFITS OF THIS PROJECT :

"Could increase the level and the productivity of a HAB in a lower cost"

•  Map the terrains of a specific location, which has been made accessible even for people of the bottom line of society.
•   Predicting the climate which is based on a locality will help the farmers tremendously for producing food crops according to the weather. Also it can be effectively used for getting the idea about floods, hurricanes and other natural calamities. And can warn people localted there.
•   We can provide wifi connection for rural areas, for extended time when we compare to normal low cost high altitude balloon.
•  Else it can be used as a tool to reach upto space for space enthusiastic people; specially because it's highly affordable for such people.

BILL OF MATERIALS :

FLOW CHART OF OUR PLAN :

How we used Space agency Data in our Project :

The below links , the occurrence data of species has been taken from NASA articles and Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility is involved in providing environmental variable data used in our project. The data from these sites have been used for space weather prediction for Weather Mapping in our project. how these data are combined to get prediction maps over space and time.

• https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/balloons.html
• https://blog.csiro.au/japans-space-agency-joins-us-to-take-near-space-balloons-up-up-and-away/
• https://www.industry.gov.au/policies-and-initiatives/australian-space-agency
• https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/oct/HQ_10-269_Balloon_Mishap.html
• https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-scientific-balloons-return-to-flight-with-spring-2021-campaign
• https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-mission-will-study-the-cosmos-with-a-stratospheric-balloon

Really it was nice experience for me and to my team members this is our first Space App challenge and we have learnt lot of things from Space Apps like communicating with the mentors and presenting our project to them ,from that we have learnt lot of things from them and we have choosed this challenge NEAR SPACE NEAR YOU for some unique purpose and researches to make a HAB in low cost is the only inspiration for us. This project is developed for Geographical Mapping and Weather Mapping for farmers and researching purpose. We have to thank NASA and SPACE APP TEAM and MENTORS who guide us thanks for giving this opportunity to us. Really we enjoyed the entire hackathon...Once again Thank you !!!!!!

TOOLS USED IN OUR PROJECT

• Helium Balloon
• Helium Tank
• Parachute
• Paracord
• GPS
• Camera
• Carbon fibre
• Arduino sensors
• Our Drone
• Lithium battery
• Radar reflector
• Solar panel
• Inflate system
• Ball bearing

DATA & RESOURCES

• Javatpoint : - www.javatpoint.com
• W3School : - www.w3schools.com
• Python : - www.python.org
• weather : - www.accuweather.com
• Dynamic Characterization of a High-Altitude Balloon : - www.mdpi.com 
• Article : https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1170&context=postersatthecapitol

#arduino,#sensors,#gps,#solar_panel,#camera,#parachuit,#helium_ballon,#python,#java,#nasa_data,#farmers,#geographical_mapping,#weather_mapping,#satellite_images,#w3school, #nasa,#australian_space-agency,#japans_spacea_agency

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.