Last year I launched a high altitude balloon to take near space pictures. You can see some here - Launch « I Can’t Believe it’s Not NASA
My wife is quite thrilled with my DIY space program
I’m in the process of building for my next flight and one of the pieces I would like to incorporate is a system that will drop my payload if needed and perhaps later on; be used to ignite a small rocket motor at altitude. The system needs to work at extreme temperatures (as low as -70c) and in a near vacuum)
It recently occurred to me that I might be able to use a light weight laser to do this!
For the next flight I was thinking of using one as the release mechanism if needed. The laser would simply point straight up at my balloon and pop it if required.
I have designed and built some simple circuitry that I can control from my gumstix computer and that will allow me to control a relay.
I’m looking for:
A laser that will be cheap; I might not get it back
Lightweight!
Powerful enough to pop a balloon and perhaps light off a small rocket motor.
A simple example circuit (it seems there are some prebuilt boards out there)
And any other general thoughts / suggestions recommendations
Thanks!
My wife is quite thrilled with my DIY space program
I’m in the process of building for my next flight and one of the pieces I would like to incorporate is a system that will drop my payload if needed and perhaps later on; be used to ignite a small rocket motor at altitude. The system needs to work at extreme temperatures (as low as -70c) and in a near vacuum)
It recently occurred to me that I might be able to use a light weight laser to do this!
For the next flight I was thinking of using one as the release mechanism if needed. The laser would simply point straight up at my balloon and pop it if required.
I have designed and built some simple circuitry that I can control from my gumstix computer and that will allow me to control a relay.
I’m looking for:
A laser that will be cheap; I might not get it back
Lightweight!
Powerful enough to pop a balloon and perhaps light off a small rocket motor.
A simple example circuit (it seems there are some prebuilt boards out there)
And any other general thoughts / suggestions recommendations
Thanks!