Successful mission of the Probe-03

I am happy to share with you that on the 18th of June, the stratospheric mission, the flight of the next probe, the “Probe-03” was successfully completed. The launch took place at Sokolniki near Kąty Wrocławskie and A4 highway, then the Probe reached 39086 meters of altitude above the sea level. After three hours, thirteen minutes and fifty six seconds of flight the capsule touched down near the Kamionka village at the area of Owl Mountains.

The goal of this mission was to test two communication systems, including bi-directional communication of one of them. Additionally, the probe was equipped with internal and external temperature, air pressure and humidity sensors. Two GPS sensors were responsible for geo-localization, two radio modems for communication. Additionally, accelerometer and gyroscope sensor was responsible for precise movement events registration.

The transmitted telemetry data were received by public LoRaWAN network and presented at the Signomix IoT Platform (signomix.com). The second data exchange channel was direct, P2P communication, between the probe and the dedicated, custom designed localizing device, allowing both receiving the telemetry and sending the telecommands. The localizer was also receiving all the essential data including the probe basic health condition parameters and geo-localization information. During the probe flight several tests were conducted, including tele-commands sending by the localizer and reception of the telemetry responses. All worked as expected.

The maximum distance from the probe to the chasing team was 49.1km, taking into account ground distance and flight altitude. At this distance, the bi-directional communication was successful. Taking into account the relative pretty high signal strength of the received telemetry, it is highly likely, that the possible maximum communication distance between the probe and the localizer is much longer.

Additionally, the probe was equipped with GoPro camera which filmed the flight.

The launch of the probe and the search mission were organized together with the WroSpace association (https://wrospace.pl/) under the leadership of Włodzimierz Tarnowski. Thank You Włodek for the excellent mission organization. Thanks also to Michał Traugutt and Adam Jakubiec for support during the launch and the probe search. I would also like to thank Mariusz Kubas, who provided key tips that had a significant impact on the construction of the communication system.

From the left: Łukasz holding the Probe-03, then Adam holding an additional LoRaWAN tracker in one hand and the parachute with suspended satellite tracker in another, then Michał holding the balloon