Nova
The Nova project is to launch balloons to about 30km altitude, carrying small payloads and prototypes for the Martlet rocket launch platform.
29th August 2008 Nova 8: Dawn Launch Success!
Our second dawn launch aiming to capture sunrise from near space and test a new prediction and tracking system. We planned to launch at 4am and got off the ground at 4:07am watched by a large number of people via Ustream. Our backup telemetry was also streamed to the Internet allowing people to follow the progress of the flight.
The balloon carried a payload of the Badger 1 flight computer loaded with our new predictive software and three digital cameras plus the HAPS-D (High Altitude Photo System Dawn) camera.
The predictive tracking used wind speed and drag data collected during the flight to update the team with the possible landing site. The model proved to be a great success and we were able to drive and wait less than one kilometer from the actual landing site. The camera systems all functioned correctly producing some stunning imagery which can be found in our media gallery. The only slight disappointment was that we only reached 32.9km so our previous altitude record still stands.
26th July 2008 Nova 7 : New UK Amateur Altitude Record again! 33,280m (109,186ft)
This was our first dawn launch, aiming to photograph sunrise from near space. We calculated a launch window of 3:10-3:20am, prepared the payload and got off the ground at 3:21am. With hindsight, we should have launched earlier as our altitude was lower than expected when sunrise started.
Telemetry was good again, and we were remotely tracked live on the highaltitude99 forum by those who stayed up to see the record being broken again. Sadly, a problem with the onboard cameras occurred, resulting in only getting a few decent pictures before the cameras cut out. The photo shown here is one of the tantalising few that came out, and it is easily enough to spur us into doing another dawn launch soon.
23rd July 2008 Nova 6 : New UK Amateur Altitude Record set at 32,461m (106,500ft)
The new flight computer was put tested for the first time on an extremely calm summers day. The winds were low at ground and in the jet stream, resulting in only small travel to the landing location as shown from the KML flight path.
The new radio telemetry was shown to be significantly improved, with almost flawless decoding and minimal frequency slip. The signal was soon picked up indoors in central London and was tracked live by enthusiasts on the highaltitude99 web forum. Backup SMS 'text' systems worked well too, resulting in almost complete telemetry down to 121m off the ground. Combined with a GPS precision of 5-10m, this allowed for smooth recovery half an hour after touchdown, despite the chase car getting hideously lost as we forgot to get a road map.
The onboard cameras captured some stunning images as seen here, despite one SD card running out at around 25km. A selection of the best of the 3000 photos taken can be seen here. Post-flight analysis showed slight corruption in writing to the SD card, although data was recoverable.
August 2007: Several launches
The main aim of Nova is currently to provide a launch platform for our Martlet rocket. The last few launches have been used to refine elements of our current launch platform which is designed to launch a small test rocket. Virtually every aspect of the launch platform has undergone development from refining the parachute deployment system to reducing the size of the electronics that control operation and tracking.
Click here to see what goes on in a Nova launch
9th September 2006: Nova 1 has launched!
Click for launch report and photos.
Nova is a student-run project to develop high altitude lighter-than-air-craft that can reach the edge of space. Vehicles at high altitude (25-40km) have a wide range of applications including education, atmospheric research, surveillance and a platform for launching a rocket into space.
We aim to develop adaptable vehicles that can be used for a wide variety of applications to enable us and others to explore the potential of high altitude flight.
Through cooperation with other students we hope to expand the capabilities of lighter-than-air-craft and grow relationships with other universities. We are already cooperating with two other projects; Pegasus, also based in Cambridge and MiHAB which is based in Oxford.
We hope to provide educational opportunities for younger students through providing space on Nova payloads for student experiments to show them what they can do with their science and maths.
Our first vehicle, Nova 0, was capable of carrying scientific and educational payloads to high altitude and returning them safely, although it never did so. It acted as our test bed for the developemnt of our first launch vehicle, Nova 1.
Nova 1 is a modular design. Modules include a tracker module with radio locator, a sensors module with environmental sensors, a radiomodem module and a camera module.
Learn more about Nova 1 with this 3D tour of the payload and modules in Google SketchUp- Nova 1 Tour (WMV video) / Nova 1 (Sketchup model)
- Download Google SketchUp for free here