High-Altitude Adventure with a DIY Pico Balloon
Amateur balloonists are launching DIY pico balloons into the stratosphere for indefinite flights, tracking them globally via the WSPR amateur radio network. This IEEE Spectrum piece details how to build a sophisticated, ultra-light payload for roughly the cost of a fancy dinner, making high-altitude exploration accessible. It appeals to HN's love for clever, low-cost engineering solutions and distributed network usage for scientific or hobbyist pursuits.
The Lowdown
This article explores the burgeoning hobby of pico ballooning, where enthusiasts build and launch tiny, superpressure balloons into the stratosphere for long-duration, potentially globe-circumnavigating flights. Unlike traditional weather balloons, these craft float indefinitely at high altitudes, presenting an accessible and cost-effective entry into high-altitude experimentation. The author details the components, challenges, and triumphs of building a personal pico balloon.
- Superpressure Design: Pico balloons utilize superpressure technology, allowing them to maintain altitude indefinitely rather than bursting, enabling flights that can last for months.
- Cost-Effective & Lightweight: These balloons are remarkably inexpensive to build and launch (around the cost of a 'fancy dinner'), with payloads weighing a mere 12 to 30 grams, thus avoiding strict aviation regulations.
- WSPR Tracking Network: Global tracking is achieved without satellites, instead relying on the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) amateur radio network, developed by Nobel laureate Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr., which uses low-power signals reported publicly by a worldwide community.
- DIY Payload Components: The core payload is a $4 Raspberry Pi Pico board, integrated with a GPS module and transmitter, powered by lightweight solar modules that allow it to operate during the day and gracefully power down at night.
- Regulatory Compliance & Engineering: The author faced and successfully addressed FCC compliance issues regarding spurious emissions from the transmitter by designing and implementing custom 'traps' (inductor/capacitor circuits) weighing only 0.3 grams.
- Launch & Success: After two initial failures, the author's third pico balloon successfully crossed the Atlantic, traversed the Iberian Peninsula, and was last tracked over the Mediterranean, nearing a potential global circumnavigation.
- Winter Sun Challenges: The author speculates that low winter sun might be contributing to sparse telemetry reports due to marginal solar panel power, a lesson learned for future launches.
This fascinating account showcases how readily available technology and ingenious amateur radio solutions can open up high-altitude exploration to hobbyists. It highlights the problem-solving spirit required to overcome technical hurdles and the sheer excitement of tracking a self-built craft as it journeys across continents.