Abstract—High-altitude balloons can carry small payloads to altitudes higher than 100,000 feet into the stratosphere to so called “near-space”, where satellite components and payloads can be tested in harsh environment to simulate the actual space environment. In particular, a high-altitude balloon flight with satellite communication payloads weighing up to a few pounds is a cost-effective to test the link. In this balloonSat project, several challenges in the stratosphere testing of CubeSat satellite were explored. The focus of the test included functionalities of batteries and 2.4 HGz transceiver in low temperature and long range. In addition, the GPS-enabled radio system functionality was tested for changing altitude and velocity during the flight. A 9 degree-of-freedom sensor logged the flight condition throughout the mission. Using the GPS and Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS), a balloonSat was tracked and recovered successfully. The results showed that all components tested functioned well.
Index Terms—Balloon satellite, payload design, high-altitude balloon, space systems software.
Haklin Kimm is with the Computer Science Department, East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA, USA (email: hkimm@esu.edu).
Jin S. Kang and Bob Bruinga are with Aerospace Engineering Department, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, USA (email: kang@usna.edu and bruninga@usna.edu).
Ho Sang Ham is with the Software Convergence Division, Electronics Telecommunication Research Institute, Daejeon, Korea (email: hham@etri.re.kr).
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Cite:Haklin Kimm, Jin S. Kang, Bob Bruinga, and Ho Sang Ham, "Real Time Data Communication Using High Altitude Balloon Based on Cubesat Payload," Journal of Advances in Computer Networks vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 186-190, 2015.