Payload class:

Small

Payload ID Number:

5

Mass:

2 kg

Current:

500 mA

Serial Downlink:

1200

Analog Downlink:

2

Serial Commands:

Yes

Discrete Commands:

none

Delivered:

Actual:

Delivered:

Delivered:

Abstract:

Radio communications are a critical component of the dozens of sounding balloon flights launched by universities and Space Grants each year. In general, these communications are limited to tracking and a few commands such as triggering cutdowns, but, as HASP has continually demonstrated, the ability to downlink science data and upload commands to the experiments greatly adds to the science and engagement of students. The focus of this experiment is to bring some form of the HASP capabilities aforementioned to sounding balloon flights.  This is a continuation of the UMD/ABC experiment flown last year on the 2008 HASP flight.  That flight successfully tested many of the hardware components, subsystems and techniques that will be used in this year’s experiment. The focus of this second flight is to improve on and expand the experiment based on last year’s results, and to move from testing system capability to optimizing system functionality.  The UMD/ABC-2 experiment will further refine the original experiment and collect data on the performance of ISM communication links for university balloon flights and the performance of COTS GPS receivers on extended flights. Additionally, this expanded experiment will test payload to payload communications and the performance of the computer flown last year for intensive operations such as digital image capture and live downlink.