Mission Completed

The ULDB test balloon was launch successfully and recovered in Sweden after a short flight. Future funding and flight testing is "up in the air" until further evaluation of balloon anomaly.

UPDATE: As of November 2006, I no longer work at the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility.

Norway in a Day

After working through the weekends, and with the weather not cooperating, we were giving a day off on Thursday June 8th. It's about a 3-hour drive West over the mountains to Norway on E-10. So, four of us got into the Audi and started out around 8:30am. The plan was to make a loop through some fjords via the ferry system and get back in the evening. Click on the image to the right to see the route we took.
The road is the only way to get to Norway from here without going 100's of miles north or south. Above the Arctic Circle in early June, there is still snow on the mountains and some ice on the lakes. Take a look at the photos I took. The views were spectacular! Over the high portion of the mountain pass, the rocky landscape was dotted with lakes and cabins. Most of the activity happens in the wintertime, with ski areas, lighted snowmobile trails, and lots of ice fishing. Ice huts were temporarily stored onshore during the short summer.
As we got further into Norway, there were small farms on the hillside but very little tilled soil. How do these people make a living? Ah, socialism!

The major highways through Norway have many bridges, but the larger gaps in the fjords have a well-run ferry system. We took one 2-hour ferry ride from Lodinen to Bognes (cutting south from highway E10 to E6), then a 1/2-hour ferry ride from Bognes to Skarberget (the only link in Northern Norway on E6). There were probably 50+ vehicles onboard, including RV's and tractor trailers. On the passenger level, they sold sandwhiches and had comfortable seating areas. I went onto the outside deck to see what it was like. Windy and cold! The dark water of the ocean inlets reminded me of the Great Lakes. But, in the distance were layers of snow-capped mountains, and small waterfalls.

On the way back, we stopped at Peppe's Pizza in Narvik. A welcomed break from the piles of gruel and mystery meat I've been eating every day. (Actually, the Esrange food is quite good most of the time!)

Some of the best scenery was along the road to Narvik. Weathered stone mountain sides, rivers, bridges, small towns on the edge of the Fjords. We got back to Esrange around 9:30pm, just in time to join the party put on by the Aesop science group to celebrate the successful end of their mission. Their payload is being recovered near a frozon lake in the Northwest Territories in Canada after 5+ days floating at 130,000 feet.

Go, No-Go

On Tuesday night (date: 6/6/6) we prepared the ULDB test balloon for launch. The weather appeared to be perfect. The payload and balloon were laid out in flight position and all systems were 'go'. (For some photos I took during this launch attempt: click here.) But the light ground winds reversed and the launch attempt was cancelled at about 2:30am local time. One of the most difficult things to do in scientific ballooning is to carefully put 3500 pounds of plastic back in the box!
After the payload was brought back into the integration building, I ate a huge breakfast in the base cafeteria and went to sleep around 4am.
The next evening, we were going to try again but the rain continued late into the night. This means I will be staying here in Sweden a while longer.

Midnight Madness

Last night we completed the pre-flight "all up" test for the upcoming ULDB flight. With the weather improving later in the evening, the outdoor portion of the testing was done around midnight. Looking at the picture on the left, one would guess it was taken at either sunrise or sunset. Well, you could say it is both... this shot was take at 12:35am at solar minimum. Since the sun never sets this time of year, this is the point where it is lowest on the horizon, facing North!
The warm shades of color on the hillside were a contrast to the near freezing temperatures. It looks like we are going to try for a launch late tonight, early tomorrow morning. The weather forecast is marginal, but I'm hoping for the best.
Yesterday, I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Kiruna and enjoyed driving the Audi A6 Avant sport wagon (6-speed manual transmission). U.S. price is about $48,000! On the way back, I bought some milk, cereal, and a 6-pack of Diet Coke 'Light'... for a total of 81 Swedish Kronors, or $11.29 U.S.
I finally did some laundry using the hotel washers and dryers. The controls are labelled in Swedish and the designs are small front-loaders. Quite a challenge. See Stratodude's blog for his adventures with the Esrange laundry room.

Launch of Aesop Payload

The weather finally cooperated early this morning and we launched the AESOP science payload at 4:08am local time. Here's the photo from the Esrange press release. I took several photos while videotaping the preparation and launch for NASA. During the flight, the real-time flight path data is online. As of 3pm local time, it's now heading off over the North Atlantic toward Greenland and will be recovered in Canada in 4 or 5 days. After a day or two of final check-out, our ULDB test flight will be ready to launch next.

Here's a closer look at the payload and the 1000-foot flight train with 100-foot parachute. The 40 million cubic foot balloon is filled to allow full expansion at an altitude of 130,000 feet. It was cold out, but the sun never sets. It's strange seeing the sun directly North on the horizon after midnight!

Eat, Sleep, Repeat

Not much new to talk about today. Eat, sleep, repeat... with some work thrown in for good measure. We're well into the final details needed to check out all the systems to declare "flight ready" by the end of the week.

The weather is still mostly cloudy, in the 40's, with a cold northwest wind. There may be some snow on Thursday. No flight attempts will be possible until Friday.

Jukkasjärvi (Meeting place)

Although today was a US holiday, it was all work at Esrange. The weather is clearing but windy, with a likely balloon launch opportunity for AESOP on Friday. The ULDB test flight would follow soon after. The next step in flight preparations was to being installing electronics and valves on the large "apex plate". This 4ft round 3/4 inch thick aluminum plate is integral to the top of the new "superpressure" balloon structure being tested. It's heavy enough to require a temporary "tow balloon" to lift it before the main balloon is inflated. One purpose of the electronics is to receive commands to cut the tow balloon away before flight. The bulk of the electronics controls the helium valves and sends back vital information, such as the difference in pressure inside/outside the balloon and the tension forces on a few of the 200+ hightech fiber "tendons".
Here are two picture of Stratodude attaching the squib-firing box and the valve subassemblies (which are also used to fill the 260ft diameter balloon). Extra care is taken to prevent objects from falling into the balloon material (tools, fasteners, jewelery, small children, etc). Speaking of that, there was a tour group of Swedish kids today at Esrange. Rockets and balloons in the Arctic are "mycket coolt"!

After work, I drove the rental Toy(ota) truck to the nearest town to buy some milk (mjölk). It's about a 15 minute drive from Esrange to Jukkasjärvi, population 541, on the Torne River. The town has a church built around 1600 and is the site of a Saami village that predates the Swedish settlement. Here are a few pictures of the town. It is famous around the world for its Ice Hotel which is rebuilt every year (the melted remains are still there!).

Rocks and Rockets

Another cloudy day with rain on & off, but a little warmer (high of 50). So, I decided to take a walk down to the rocket launch area, then along the river to look for some interesting rocks. The sandy soil holds a variety of rocks left by glaciers long ago, much like where I'm from in upstate NY.

First, I wandered around the rocket launch complex and took a bunch of pictures (with captions at the bottom). The Kiruna launch site was opened in 1966 and over 450 rockets have been launched here. The Maxus rocket is the largest launched at Esrange, and was developed for microgravity experiments. The motor is a Castor 4B, made by Thiokol in the US (1m in diameter, 9m long, all steel, 100K lbs. thrust, and >25 million N-secs, for you rocket geeks!). The Skylarks and Orions were launched here regularly. Also, the small 4" Super Loki Dart rocket is common at Esrange. (Can anyone identify this old rocket?)

Here's a view of the large enclosed launch tower. The most recent launch damaged the back of the building when the blast doors weren't fully open (so they say!). There's another assembly building with mobile launchers for the medium rocket. One of the small launchers for the Super Loki was made in 1942.

I continued on further into the woods and along the fenceline near the river and picked up about 30 small rocks of different varieties. As you can see in this picture, there are still patches of snow. And the high latitude (almost 68 degrees North) gives long shadows even in the early afternoon near the end of May.

Now, let's see if the weather clears up so we can get something off the ground.