GoKawiilWe chased a weather balloon across Montana and never found it
In June of 2025, I worked with New England Sci-Tech as a part of Apex to launch StratoSpore: my first ballooning project. I used this opportunity to use algae as a biosensor for altitude, and I learned a lot in the process. Wanting to experiment in the stratosphere again, I worked with Sam Flynn to make a reliable and flight-ready payload.
I had a few goals with this payload from what I learned from last year:
Have redundancy for tracking systems
Send images to the ground with actual details Last payload sent pictures 18x10 pixels
Use a more reliable GPS module
Implement more elaborate radio functionality Use my amateur radio license? Use more efficient data packing techniques for telemetry
My plan for this post is to cover how I implemented these changes, along with documenting my learning process in hopes to inform my future launches.
The Experiment(s)
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