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On September 28th, the Oregon Space Grant Consortium was informed by the "Chase Team" that the balloon satellite, launched at the 2004 Oregon State Fair on September 4, 2004, was successfully recovered.
After three exciting and adventurous weeks, the OIT/OSU/SOU High Altitude Balloon Satellite is now back on the OIT campus! The final recovery was made by OIT mathematics faculty Jim Ballard and his wife.
The successful launch, recovery, and return have been a marvelous collaboration of efforts and support from many folks! This opportunity has already spawned new BalloonSat activities that will unfold in the coming weeks as well as throughout the year. The OIT Mars Reach team has begun "dissecting" the BalloonSat in order to make further discoveries about the launch and recovery.
This project has demonstrated that the “can do” spirit of the early space pioneers is still alive and well! Thanks again to the many who contributed to the success and excitement of this Oregon State Fair Balloon Satellite project! They include:
+ Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium
+ Students and faculty of OIT, OSU, and SOU
+ OIT Provost's Office
+ Ledge of Klamath Falls "extreme gear for the next step"
+ 2004 Oregon State Fair
Recovery Attempts
Recovery Attempt #1: 9/4/04
Primary chase team (Kiley Faubion/SOU, Matt Viehdorfer/OSU, Tim Brower/OIT, and Claude Kansaku/OIT) tracks balloon from Salem along HWY 22 into the Cascades foothills using a roundabout path along Forest Roads 11 and 1142. Secondary chase team (Justin Baehmann/OIT, Chuck Burgess/OIT, Jamie Zipay/OIT) unsuccessfully attempt a direct route over minor logging roads south of Detroit Lake and eventually return to Salem via HWY 20 and I-5. The primary chase team reaches the drivable end of FR 1142 and hikes, bushwhacks, and fortuitously gets within .28 miles of downed balloon. They lose sunlight, bushwhack back in near darkness, and safely reach their vehicle after dark. They have GPS support, radio beacon support, but no maps.
Recovery attempt #2: 9/5/04
Five of the seven chasers return to the forest at the end of graveled FR 1142. The team easily reaches the closest point of the previous day by hiking the closed-off section of FR 1142 and then bushwhacks to close the gap. They get within .15 miles of the balloon before steep, cliff-like terrain turns them away. A second team bushwhacked down a steep ravine attempting to follow the radio beacon received from the balloon. This turned out to be a red herring due to radio signal reflections off of the terrain. The team has GPS support, radio beacon support, large-scale map support, and studied small-scale computer maps before departing.
Recovery attempt #3: 9/6/04
Chuck uses the radio beacon support, a personal GPS unit, and verbal position information from Tim to attempt recovery on motorcycle. No information is available from this unsuccessful attempt other than Chuck returned safely.
Recovery attempt #4: 9/12 & 9/13/04
Claude approaches Mike Angeli and Jerry Ingram from The Ledge climbing shop in Klamath Falls searching for technical ideas that might help negotiate the steep, forested terrain. Mike and Jerry offer to “go find it for you.” Mike, Jerry, and Claude make plans and return to the end of FR 1142. They have GPS support, radio beacon support, and map support. They encounter VERY rainy weather, VERY low visibility, questionable people in the forest, but make it to the .15 miles position. They decide not to rappel down the steep terrain because of these circumstances. They bushwhack a roundabout approach OFF OF THEIR MAP and get lost. With previously stored GPS waypoints and a manual compass, they are able to exit the forest safely before dark. Wet and cold, they camp overnight hoping to make another attempt in the morning but it continuously rains VERY HEAVILY all night and into the morning. At 7:00am they decide to abort and not make another attempt.
Recovery attempt #5: 9/18 & 9/19/04
Mike and Jerry from The Ledge team up with two additional associates. This time, however, they approach the landing zone using the McQuade Creek (Chimney Peak) trail that starts off of FR 1142 and happens to pass above the balloon's position. They intentionally bypass the balloon position and sweepback in a spread formation. They encounter very thick vegetation and steep terrain. They have GPS support, map support, but no radio beacon support. They had some problems operating the handheld GPS unit and decided not to rely totally on its indications. Having no radio beacon support made it difficult to get any positive idea of the balloon's position while they swept through the vegetation.
Recovery attempt #6: 9/26/04 SUCCESS!
Claude casually shares about State Fair High Altitude Balloon Project with OIT mathematics faculty Jim Ballard during the lunch break of OIT’s Showcase on Teaching seminar. Jim ponders “going out to look for it” and shares the idea with his wife. They decide to attempt recovery and use the McQuade Creek trail to approach the balloon position. They have GPS support (3 units!), radio beacon support, and map support.
They use GPS to get close and the radio beacon to triangulate a direction off the trail. Jim traverses off the trail across VERY dense brush in steep terrain to get closer. The OIT Mars Reach GPS unit (Garmin GPSMAP 76S) has a built-in compass that can indicate direction without moving. Jim finds this very useful but the batteries start to run low and he does not have spares! He uses surveyor's tape to mark scanned areas. He uses verbal callouts from his wife
back up on the trail to prevent getting totally disoriented in the dense brush. Unfortunately, he did not have the radio beacon in this part of the search. He "felt" like he was right on it but the dense brush made sighting very difficult and perhaps the beacon would have helped. By "chance" he visually caught the parachute and silver radio BalloonSat buried somewhat in a low area of brush. The BalloonSat did not get stuck in a tree but instead came down with what must have been significant speed as to "bury" itself
in the underlying dense brush. Hats off to Jim and his wife! A side story is that he believes he came across a bear. He heard something move in the brush as he was down off the trail sweeping. What made it more tense was the fact that he had left his bear spray and shotgun up on the trail with his wife! Live to tell!!!
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