BEAR 3: Launched Tuesday May 26, 2009, at 8:15pm local time

BEAR 3 finally launched Tuesday evening reaching an altitude of 86,394 ft. Total flight time was 2 hours and 37 minutes and landed (N 65° 14.836,00', W 147° 46.714,00') in the White Mountain Recreation Area 28 miles north of Fairbanks.

Alaska Space Grant engineering students in collaboration with the Arctic Amateur Radio Club (AARC) and researchers at the Geophysical Institute will fly a high altitude balloon to capture particulates from the eruption of Alaska's Mount Redoubt.

Building Bear3: University Of Alaska Fairbanks student Alex (mechanical engineer) constructing a high-altitude 1 micron particle sampler capable of capturing Mt. Redoubt volcanic ash at high altitude. Photo by Dan Wietchy: KL1JPThe science payload consists of two samplers, a pressure switch, and a HOBO data logger. One sampler is created using the Brailsford TD-2S air pump and filter system, with a Nucleopore filter sized for particles 1 micrometer and larger. The other sampler consists of a higher air volume Brailsford TB1-1L squirrel cage fan pulling air through one of the same Nucleopore filters. We are flying a modified UP24 Ultimate Pressure Sensor from Ramsey Electronics, which will control the operation of the samplers. The pressure sensor is set to turn on the samplers at around 40,000 ft on the upleg and turn them back off again at the same altitude on the downleg. The HOBO data logger will measure internal temperature, external temperature, relative humidity, and the pump voltages (to determine time of turn on).

In addition to the science payload we will also fly redundant radio/gps tracking packages, and a camera package containing two digital video cameras and a still camera controlled with a 555 timer.

Things are looking good to launch from Poker Flat Research Range, which is roughly, 65 degrees North, 147 degrees west, around 10 AM local time, 2 May 2009. We hope to reach at least 90,000 plus feet, before the balloon bursts and the payloads are parachuted back to the earth for recovery.

Once BEAR3 launches - you can use the below links to find us or watch the flight on the findu URL page.

Capsule 1 (APRS) http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kl7kc-11
Capsule 2 (APRS format) http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?wl7nz-3
The Chase Plane (APRS) http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kl1nu-5

For additional information go to http://www.bear.437am.com/